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GEORGE P. RUTLEDGE 



CENIR-SHOTS AT ROME 

A Series of Lectures on Catholicism 

Stenographically Reported 



BY 

GEORGE P. RUTLEDGE 

Author of ''The Pledge in Sermon'' 




Cincinnati 
The Standard Publishing Company 



Copyright^ 1914, by 
The Standard Publishing Company 



4^% 

y^"" 



JUL 2^ lyi4 



g)CI,A374895 



PREFACE 

When the series of lectures, now 
referred to as 'The Columbus Cam- 
paign/' was announced, nothing more 
than a neighborhood interest was antic- 
ipated. 

But when on Sunday evening, Jan. 
11, 1914, all the available rooms of the 
Broad Street Church of Christ had to be 
thrown into one auditorium, and an 
audience of fifteen hundred people faced 
the astonished pastor, he realized, with 
a staggering suddenness, that he had "a 
situation" on his hands. 

The audiences began assembling as 
early as five o'clock, and long before the 
regular hour for service the house was 
packed. All stairways, vestibules, gal- 
leries and Sunday-school classrooms 
were filled with standing people; people 
stood, elbow to elbow, around all walls; 
the pulpit, choir and communion lofts 
were filled; and the aisles were so con- 

3 



4 PREFACE 

gested that the city fire department 
issued a command calling attention to the 
law on the subject of public safety. And 
still the people who wished to hear could 
not be accommodated; the doorkeepers 
estimated that one night as many were 
turned away as secured entrance. The 
worst blizzards of the winter held two of 
the meetings in their grasp, but the inter- 
est did not abate. The people were 
"wrought up/^ and storms could neither 
blow down nor freeze up their enthu- 
siasm. For seven consecutive Sunday 
evenings they came from all over the 
city and the surrounding towns. New 
Lexington — sixty miles away — had rep- 
resentatives at all the meetings save the 
first. 

The campaign naturally met with 
Roman opposition. Catholic reporters 
were on hand, three at a clip. They 
sat together and put forth no effort 
to conceal their mission. The day fol- 
lowing the first lecture, a committee with 
a typewritten copy waited upon one of 
the trustees of the church, stated that 
the lectures were being stenographically 



PREFACE 5 

reported, that the names of all the men 
in the church were tabulated and under 
consideration, and demanded that the 
officers of the church should discontinue 
the series. It is also known that Cath- 
olics attended the meetings in large num- 
bers, and the presence of several priests 
was likewise reported. Quite frequently, 
people ''talked out loud," and such ex- 
pressions as ''He's lying," and "He's 
doing this for money," were heard, here 
and there, in the building. 

As the campaign progressed, many 
unexpected things occurred. The mails 
brought letters of encouragement and 
letters of criticism, periodicals, tracts and 
all sorts of literature on both sides of 
the Catholic question. The telephone 
was busy from early morning until late 
at night — conveying information, advice, 
threats, neighborhood gossip, and offers 
of assistance. Business men neglected 
their offices and went in quest of local 
"thunder" for the speaker. Affidavits 
were secured and information of every 
description was furnished — much of 
which was not used, owing to the fact 



6 PREFACE 

that it was of such a character it could 
not be referred to in public. Some 
of the affidavits had to be ignored 
for the same reason. When the lecture 
on the "Auricular Confession'' was de- 
livered, there was a miniature confes- 
sional-box — about three feet wide and 
two feet high — on a table in the pulpit. 
It had been placed there by an ex- 
Catholic. 

But nothing was more surprising 
than an opposition from Protestant 
sources. Protestants of the ultra-ses- 
thetic type — including a few preachers — 
were reported to have referred to the 
meetings, and especially the speaker, in 
a way that was anything but compli- 
mentary. "Sensationalism,'' "a love of 
notoriety," and "a nine days' wonder," 
are samples of the terms and phrases 
that slipped from the tongues of Prot- 
estant critics and sped through the city. 
One man, well known in the city and 
at the head of a Protestant church, was 
reported to have prophesied that the 
antipapal lectures would ruin the Broad 
Street Church of Christ. The threats 



PREFACE 7 

and letters from Rome were amusing. 
But not so with the Protestant arrows — 
they left a sting. 

But is such a campaign a ''nine days' 
wonder''? Does it amount to anything, 
after all? And what is the effect upon 
the church that conducts it? These are 
relevant questions. 

It has now been five weeks since the 
delivery of the last lecture. And in this 
short time an organization which proph- 
esies a reconstruction of the political 
situation in Columbus has been effected. 
This organization is already large and 
strong, and the fact that it is rapidly 
enlisting business and professional men, 
and the most representative of the sturdy 
laboring classes, proves that it is not 
a growth of the mushroom kind. The 
campaign did not create the sentiment 
which evolved this movement. But its 
influence upon the city made the move- 
ment immediately possible upon an ener- 
getic and a widespread scale. 

So far as the church is concerned, 
all are agreed that it is better known 
than ever before in its history. It has 



8 PREFACE 

already received new members as a direct 
result of the lectures, and the audiences 
show a marked improvement. 

To all who are inclined to look for 
''spots on the sun/' and to censure any- 
thing and everything another does, the 
foregoing will smack of the ''braggado- 
cio.'' Nevertheless, it is deliberately 
written for a purpose — that of stimula- 
ting ministers, into whose hands this book 
may fall, to conduct similar campaigns. 

And to, at once, puncture the bubble 
which may begin floating on the minds 
of any who are ready, at the first oppor- 
tunity, to hurl the accusation of "ego- 
tism," let it be said that the pastor of 
the Broad Street Church of Christ is not 
a logical target for such shots. He is 
practically a new man in the city. He 
had in no spectacular way come before 
the Columbus public, nor had he in any 
way ever gone "front" in the promotion 
of enterprises that usually make a 
preacher "known." To put it in a nut- 
shell, he had never addressed a repre- 
sentative audience in the city, had never 
been in the limelight for a single moment. 



PREFACE 9 

had preached to small audiences only, 
and was not known outside his own 
neighborhood and not very well in that. 

Hence the crowds were not drawn by 
the preacher, but by the subject. The 
results would have been the same had 
any other man of ordinary intelligence 
been at the speaker's end of the situation. 
A day-laborer, endowed with a little 
speaking ability and conversant with the 
theme, could have drawn and held the 
crowds. 

Any preacher, anywhere, who an- 
nounces a series of discourses upon 
Roman Catholicism, will discover that 
the people are eager for his messages. 
The public is in advance of the pulpit 
in the consideration of this subject, and 
it is therefore ready to hear whomsoever 
will expose it. To put it in another way, 
the entire country is ready for the 
message of light. Every community is 
a magazine, and any public speaker can 
strike the match that will ignite the 
powder. The writer now wonders that 
he did not attack Romanism years ago, 
and that all the preachers of the country 



10 PREFACE 

have not laid bare this medieval polit- 
ical system of the twentieth century. All 
the speaker needs is a knowledge of his- 
tory and current events, the faculty of 
multiplying 2 by 2, and the ability to 
convey his thoughts to an audience. The 
people will do the rest. And any house, 
in which antipapal meetings are held, 
will be packed. 

No thought of the lectures ever 
reaching the public in printed form was 
entertained until the people began ask- 
ing for them — many, under the excite- 
ment of the moment, offering as much 
as one dollar for a typewritten copy of 
a single speech. Also, a man of means 
in Columbus offered to have the entire 
series printed in pamphlet form and dis- 
tributed broadcast at his own expense. 
A local printer wished to publish the lec- 
tures as a business venture, and two 
publishing-houses, other than the Stand- 
ard, solicited the manuscripts. 

Had such interest been anticipated, 
the speeches would have been prepared 
with a view to their publication. But no 
previous preparation had been made. 



PREFACE 11 

Each speech was blocked out, in ''head- 
notes/' during the week prior to its de- 
Hvery, and under circumstances that 
were aggravated by family illness and 
the stress of midwinter work in a widely 
scattered city church. 

The lectures were stenographically 
reported, and the best that can be done 
is to send them forth in the garb of 
extemporaneous address. They are, 
therefore, sent on their way, not for the 
supercilious eye of the ''high-flung" 
critic, but in obedience to a widespread 
demand upon the part of the common 
people who are ready to fight and are 
looking for weapons of warfare. 

And if the book encourages others to 
plunge into "the fight that is on," and 
helps blaze the way for the most insistent 
reform of the present day, the author 
will count it a joy to receive whatever 
censure may be pronounced against him 
by the "propriety-bound." 

Geo. p. Rutledge. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 
I. 

Why Preach Against Rome? IS 

II. 
Popedom 30 

III. 
The Priesthood 60 

IV. 
The Auricular Confession 87 

V. 
RoME^s Bloody Hands 117 

VI. 
Romanism and American Institutions 151 

VII. 
The Remedy 192 



18 



L 

WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 
(Rev. 17:3-6, 18.) 

Please give special attention to the 
first statement I shall make, and bear 
it in mind throughout this series of lec- 
tures. I believe there have alv^ays been 
good people in the Roman Catholic 
Church, and that there are multitudes of 
good people in that church to-day — 
people v^ho have lived, and are living, 
up to their light. And all such, from 
my viewpoint, are the Lord's children. 
I recall an old lady w^ho v^as once a 
neighbor of ours. She v^as a devout 
Catholic. Nevertheless, hers was a life 
of sacrifice for others. And although 
we were Protestants and I a Protestant 
minister, when trouble assailed our home 
she was the most helpful of all our 
friends. Some years ago she passed 
into the great beyond, and I'm confident 
she went to heaven without having to 



15 



16 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

take in the sights of purgatory. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

But while I believe there are Chris- 
tian Catholics, I further believe — and 
shall prove — that they are the most 
deplorably hoodwinked people on earth. 
[Applause.] 

Therefore, I am not here to speak 
against Roman Catholics, but against 
Roman Catholicism — the widest spread, 
most arrogant, and diabolical system of 
evil that touches the lives of nations. 

And now, for a few moments, I shall 
preface the succeeding lectures of the 
series — each of which will be carefully 
and accurately loaded with rifle-balls, 
scooped out of the red-hot molds of his- 
tory, the testimony of reputable ex- 
Catholics, and information on the sur- 
face of current events throughout the 
world — information so patent that the 
man in greatest haste may read as he 
runs. 

Next Sunday evening the subject will 
1 e 'Topedom" — the most palpable fraud 
of human history. If you are acquainted 
with the history of Romanism, it will 



WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 17 

not be difficult for you to anticipate the 
substance of this discourse. If you are 
not, you will go away utterly astounded 
at the fallacy of Papal infallibility. 

The third lecture will be on 'The 
Priesthood" — an eye-opener to all who 
have not familiarized themselves with 
the subject. 

The fourth will deal with the ''Auric- 
ular Confession'' — an iniquity that, as I 
shall prove, ought to be prohibited by 
law. 

Fifth, "Rome's Bloodv Hands"— and 
I shall substantiate the circular an- 
nouncement that no man-eating tiger 
ever thirsted for human blood as has the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

Sixth, "Romanism and American 
Institutions." If you are at all informed 
as to Rome's present attitude and move- 
ments in our country, the subject itself 
should set your nerves a-tingle and enlist 
your patriotism in the great fight that 
is on. 

And the last will be "The Protestant- 
ism of Our Day and Its Relations to 
Roman Catholicism," or "The Remedy." 



18 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Whether the text I read awhile ago 
be interpreted as a specific arraignment 
of the Catholic Church or given a more 
general interpretation, the striking sim- 
ilarity between the scarlet woman it 
describes and Romanism affords a recog- 
nizable picture of this iniquitous system. 

There are people in every community, 
with more sentiment than information 
and foresight, who lift up hands of hor- 
ror and exclaim: ''Sh! Don't say any- 
thing against Roman Catholicism! We 
don't believe in preaching against other 
people's religion!" 

Now, let us shake this namby- 
pamby proposition and see what falls out 
of it. 

In the first place, Roman Catholicism 
is not a religion. It is to-day what it has 
been for more than thirteen centuries — 
a combination of Judaism and paganism 
with a little Christian sentiment mixed 
in. To be more exact, it is a gigantic 
political institution, and its ceremonies 
and benevolences are only screens that 
shield its hypocrisy from the public. It 
is the filthiest pit into which the world 



WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 19 

has ever looked, the blackest and most 
nauseating veil ever wrapped about the 
heads of nations, the most dangerous 
foe humanity has. If hell has head- 
quarters on earth, Til prove to you, be- 
fore these lectures are finished, that the 
devil's chief throne is in the city of 
Rome. [ Applause. ] 

In the second place, while many 
wishy-washy Protestants are very gra- 
cious and tender toward Romanism, 
Romanism has no more use for Protest- 
antism than a rattlesnake has for a 
stone on its head. 

Now and then, a prominent priest, 
bishop, or cardinal administers Protest- 
antism a soothing pellet in the form of 
a blessing upon the spirit of Christian 
union that is abroad in the world. But 
Protestantism and Romanism can no 
more unite than can powder and fire. 
[Applause.] A current illustration in- 
forms us that Romanism is a lion and 
Protestantism is a lamb. Romanism is 
perfectly willing for the lamb and the 
lion to lie down together. But Roman- 
ism wants the lamb to lie down in the 



20 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

lion. [Laughter.] This, Uke all bald- 
headed, gray-whiskered illustrations 
[laughter], is out of date, and I would 
Hke to change it a little. Protestantism 
is no longer a lamb — it is a sheep, with 
a temper and horns. [Applause.] 

Rome is exerting herself to prohibit 
the passage of anticatholic literature 
through the mails. At this very hour 
she is trying to get a bill through Con- 
gress that would, should it become law, 
shield her abominations from the keen 
public eye. And she is constantly en- 
deavoring to silence public discussion 
concerning her institutions and her atti- 
tude toward the affairs of the world. In 
other words, she is pushed into a corner 
and crying ''Persecution !" If it were 
not so serious, it would be laughable. 
The idea of this blood-stained, history- 
cursed church, with the reeking scalps 
of more than fifty million victims swing- 
ing from her girdle, appealing to public 
sympathy and saying, "Come and help 
me, I'm being persecuted!" is ridiculous 
in the extreme. [Applause.] Returning 
to the illustration, the lion has forgotten 



WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 21 

that he can roar, and is whining Hke a 
cat. [Applause.] Why? The sheep is 
getting busy. [Applause.] And the 
sheep will continue the exercise of its 
prerogative until the lion, no longer able 
to crouch on the fence and mew, will be 
butted over out of the field and into pur- 
gatory. [ Applause. ] 

Does Romanism preach against Prot- 
estantism? Be not deceived by a pre- 
tended friendliness for Protestantism 
upon the part of Romanism when, now 
and then, a priest or bishop condescends 
to sit on a popular platform with Prot- 
estants or indorses a limelight move- 
ment led by Protestants. Rome always 
has an ax to grind, nor does she hesitate 
to go out of her way and greet Protest- 
ants with a cordial smile when they are 
turning a good grindstone. 

In Stephen Keenan's ''Controversial 
Catechism," which is used in the Roman 
churches and taught in the parochial 
schools, it is stated, again and again, 
that no Protestant will be saved. 

In Deharbe's "Catechism," and nu- 
merous other current Catholic works, 



22 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

daily taught adults and children, the 
same position is dogmatically and offen- 
sively maintained. 

In 'Tlain Talk about Protestantism 
of To-day," Segur says: 'Trotestantism 
is not a religion, but a rebellion, a cancer, 
and the arch-enemy of souls/' 

In Baddelley's book we read the 
soothing statement that ''the Protestant 
church, instead of leading them to heav- 
en, infallibly leads them to hell": while 
the infallible throne of Romanism, which, 
according to Catholic teaching, can 
neither err nor change, emphatically de- 
clares, through Pius IX., that ''the apos- 
tolic Roman Church is the one Ark of 
Salvation; that he who has not entered 
it will perish in the deluge; and that 
the Catholic religion, with all its votes, 
ought to be exclusively dominant in such 
sort that every other worship should be 
banished and interdicted." 

Read any of the Catholic doctrinal 
books or periodicals, and you will dis- 
cover that Romanism is constantly 
preaching against Protestantism in most 
unmistakable and insulting terms. 



WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 23 

Throughout America, the Roman 
Church constantly and persistently 
teaches that no marriage is legal unless 
it is performed by a Catholic priest. To 
make it perfectly clear, while some of 
you are charitable enough to say, "Let 
the Catholic Church alone — it is doing 
good work," Romanism declares from the 
housetops that you married people are 
living in iniquity, and it brands your chil- 
dren with the hot iron of disgrace. 

Ladies and gentlemen, from the be- 
ginning of the Reformation until now, 
Romanism has been what it always 
intends to be — the one open and above- 
board, avowed, never-sleeping, cursing, 
raving, hard-handed, no quarter-giving, 
insulting enemy of Protestantism. And 
if for no other reasons, our religion — 
baptized in the righteous blood of millions 
— and our marriage altar — the tender est 
and fairest flower among our American 
institutions — should open wide the mouth 
of every non-Catholic in the country and 
direct his voice, long and loud, and like 
the clear tones of a trumpet, against the 
Vatican. [Applause. ] 



24 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

But there are other reasons! 

Romanism is the greatest of all 
obstacles in the path of Foreign Mis- 
sions. Jesus said: ''Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel unto every 
creature." Every Protestant communion 
of any standing is represented on the 
foreign field, and, there, our mission- 
aries are united — all are exalting Christ, 
and him only. But the Catholic Church 
is a menace to the foreign fields as well 
as the home lands. From every country 
comes the same black, heart-sickening 
report. In the Philippine Islands and 
all other fields, Romanism, while pretend- 
ing to teach the Christian religion, is 
pushing its own selfish aims and hinder- 
ing the gospel message. 

In the Congo Free State, Belgium's 
fiendish king tortured and maimed and 
slew multitudes of heathen men and 
women and children for gain; and the 
Catholic missionaries did all they could 
to keep the lid down, that the world 
might not look upon the terror and hear 
the groans of a downtrodden people 
who were compelled to spend their days 



WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 25 

in a living hell. And when the old, rum- 
soaked, licentious, avaricious, murderous 
king died, hopes were entertained and 
expressed for the repose of his soul. The 
repose of his soul! If I thought Leo- 
pold was in heaven, my ticket would be 
bought for the next station. [Applause,] 

Also, as the fruit of Roman teach- 
ing in Africa, Stephen J. Corey, in his 
book, states that, during his recent tour 
of Africa, he and his party were thrice 
assailed in one single day by native 
Catholics. 

But back to America. Romanism, 
which has never had a religious or moral 
conscience anywhere, has not the sem- 
blance of a political conscience in our 
country. 

In the majority of the Southern 
cities, and a few Northern cities, the 
Pope is a Democrat, but elsewhere he is 
a Republican. Be it remembered that 
the Catholic Church is one system, of 
which the Pope is the universally recog- 
nized head. He is, therefore, a multi- 
plex being, and every loyal Catholic 
in the world is the Pope in reality and 



26 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

action. He is the heart of Romanism. 

I've lived in two Democratic ring- 
ridden cities — Columbus and one other. 
[Applause.] And in each the Catholics 
are Democrats. Tve lived in a Repub- 
lican ring-ruled city, also, and there the 
Catholics are Republicans. In all these 
cities I've witnessed reform campaigns, 
but the reform tickets have not had the 
Catholic support. 

When the political tricksters cele- 
brate an election victory with a blowout, 
and make the night hideous with ''Hail! 
Hail! The Gang's all here!" Rome 
always sings soprano. [Laughter.] 

Go where you may, and you will find 
Romanism with its arms around rum, 
vice, and rotten politics. [Applause.] 

Rome secures representation on tem- 
perance platforms. Yet her priests are 
intemperate, as I shall prove in the third 
lecture; some of her church papers carry 
liquor advertisements, and her sons keep 
saloons. The rum traffic will eventually 
go out of business. But before the sun- 
light of that glad day bursts in splendor 
upon all the mountains, hills, and plains 



WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 27 

of America, Rome's political backbone 
will have to be broken. [Applause.] 

To sum it up: Roman Catholicism 
should be preached against because it is 
a fraud religiously, and a vampire polit- 
ically; because it is opposed to a free 
press, free speech, and especially the free 
school; because, as history and current 
events prove, it never elevates, but al- 
ways degrades the countries and com- 
munities it dominates; because it is the 
open and eternal foe of the Bible in the 
hands of the people; because it is Satan's 
right hand on earth to-day, with which 
he blights the lives of men, women, and 
children by the million, and seeks to ulti- 
mately snatch the Sun of righteousness 
from His noonday throne and wrap this 
old world in utter and hopeless darkness. 
[Applause.] 

But truth is marching on. Protest- 
antism is awaking from its sleep. 
Preachers are beginning to raise their 
voices against this mighty evil. Lec- 
turers are shooting at it from the plat- 
form. Independent papers, that enlighten 
and stir the public conscience, are sing- 



28 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

ing like swift arrows as they speed 
across land and sea. And the printing- 
press is binding paper by the ton into 
books and pamphlets that, finding their 
way into unnumbered homes, are open- 
ing the eyes of the people and preparing 
them for the most strenuous conflict of 
history. The time is not far distant 
when every Protestant minister in 
America will have to preach against 
Romanism or lose his job. [Applause.] 
I hear the distant rumble of thunder 
— it is the steady voice of God approach- 
ing. I see a flash of lightning against 
the sky-line — it is a gleam from the 
countenance of the oncoming, conquering 
King. The heavens will, erelong, be 
covered with a whirling blackness, the 
righteous indignation of a long-outraged 
and a thoroughly aroused public — it will 
be the wrath of the Almighty. Truth 
will flash, back and forth, like forked 
lightning, and, assembling itself into one 
mighty dart, it will descend from the 
swirling blackness, strike the ''scarlet 
woman," and bury her so completely in 
the depths of purgatory that all the 



WHY PREACH AGAINST ROME? 29 

prayers of priests, prelates, and popes 
ever uttered, written, or thought will 
never pry her out. And she shall be 
wrapped in a flame so great and fierce 
that, though all the holy water ever 
manufactured be dashed upon it, it will 
never be quenched. [Applause.] 



11. 

POPEDOM. 
(2Thess. 2:3,4.) 

Roman Catholicism is supposed, by 
its adherents, to rest upon two stones — 
apostolic succession and the infallibility 
of the pope. But I propose, this even- 
ing, to prove two things: (1) That the 
so-called apostolic succession is nothing 
but mud — and very thin mud at that; 
and (2) that the so-called Papal infalli- 
bility is nothing but slush — and very 
dirty slush at that. [Applause.] 

Roman Catholicism teaches that the 
apostle Peter was the first pope, and 
that an unbroken line of succession can 
be traced from him down to the present 
incumbent. Fm a poor man, and need 
all the loose change I can get my hands 
on; but if any man — layman, priest, bish- 
op, cardinal, or pope — will prove to the 
satisfaction of an unbiased jury that 
Peter was ever in Rome, Til take a mil- 

30 



POPEDOM 31 

lion dollars out of my vest-pocket and 
hand it over to him. [Applause.] 

There are Catholics here to-night — 
plenty of them — as there were last Sun- 
day night. I wish, therefore, to reiterate 
a statement previously made. I am not 
here to speak against Roman Catholic 
people, but against Roman Catholicism — 
the system. I have never had any 
trouble with Catholics, not even in Steu- 
ben ville. * [ Laughter. ] 

There is not a Roman Catholic in 
the world against whom I have a person- 
al grudge, and I wish all Catholics well. 
But I hate the system — Roman Cathol- 
icism — ^as much as Catholics think the 
devil hates holy water. [Applause.] 

I wish also to say to you Catholic 
people, and through you to your friends, 
that you are welcome to these meetings; 
I wish more of you would come. I 
would rather deliver this and the two 
succeeding lectures to a house packed 

*A local priest was reported to have said that the second 
lecture of the series might be delivered, but the third would not; 
and to have added that the Catholics had driven Rutledge out of 
Steubenville, and they would drive him out of Columbus. Just 
before announcing his text, Mr. Rutledge referred to the report, 
and explained that he had never been in Steubenville, 



32 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

with Catholics than to the largest Prot- 
estant audience that could be assembled. 
However, I shall not take advantage of 
you. ''Forewarned is forearmed.'' And 
I warn you that if your faith is brought 
here it will be in danger. If you are too 
prejudiced to look at these subjects im- 
partially, or if, for any reason, you can 
not think, the arguments I shall present 
will be of no avail so far as you are con- 
cerned. But if you listen to this entire 
series of lectures, and can and will think 
in terms of Scripture, history, and logic, 
your eyes will be opened; and if you then 
stand by your convictions, you will, like 
Luther and thousands of other honest 
people, come out of Rome. However, 
you have not yet heard enough to be con- 
vinced, and I fancy you are saying to 
yourselves: ''Mr. Rutledge, that million- 
dollar proposition of yours is a big bluff. 
If your pockets were turned inside out, 
it would be discovered that they do not 
contain a penny." [Laughter.] And 
your guess is correct. It so happens that 
I stand before you without one bill or 
coin in any of my pockets. But the dif- 



POPEDOM 33 

ference between Rome's situation and 
that of your speaker drives home the 
proposition under discussion. I know 
where I can lay my hand on a Httle 
money when I need it, whereas the 
Catholic Church can not lay her hand on 
one iota of reputable evidence that Peter 
was ever in the Imperial City. If the 
pockets of the New Testament and his- 
tory be turned inside out, it will be dis- 
covered that they do not contain one 
single coin of proof that he ever stood 
within its gates. [Applause.] Scaliger, 
Salmasius, Spanheim, Adam Clarke, and 
numerous other eminent writers, deny 
that Peter ever saw the city of Rome. 

In the second place, James was the 
ruling elder or bishop of the original 
church — not in Rome, but Jerusalem. 
Paul was more prominent, as an apostle, 
than Peter. And John was the ''disciple 
whom Jesus loved"; for some reason, he 
was nearer the Master than were his 
brethren. Therefore, why Peter, instead 
of James or Paul or John? Rome an- 
swers: ''Did not Christ say to Peter, 
'Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 



34 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

shall be bound in heaven; and whatso- 
ever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven' V Yes. But it doesn't 
prove that Peter was to be the pope. 
For in the eighteenth chapter of Mat- 
thew it is recorded that Jesus addressed 
the same statement to all the disciples. 

But Rome's chief proof-text is Matt. 
16: 18: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this 
rock I will build my church." 

Modern Roman Catholicism can say 
mass in Latin, but if it can translate 
and interpret Greek texts correctly, it 
doesn't do it. Every one who has a 
smattering of Greek knows that Jesus 
employed two words — Petros for Peter 
and petra for rock. 

Romanism professes to be governed 
in its interpretation of Scripture "accord- 
ing to the unanimous consent of the 
Fathers." 

Now, let us see how truthful (?) the 
Catholic Church is and how loyally (?) 
she subscribes to the writings of ''the 
Fathers." 

Augustine, the learned and cele- 
brated Bishop of Hippo, whose name !s 



POPEDOM 35 

a household word among Catholics, han- 
dled Matt 16: 18 as follows: 'Thou art 
Peter, and upon this rock which thou 
hast confessed . . . saying, Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God,' 
I will build my church." 

And Hilary, another Catholic saint, 
whose day on the calendar is January 13, 
wrote: 'This one foundation is immov- 
able; that is, that one blessed rock of 
faith, confessed by the mouth of Peter, 
Thou art the Son of the living God/ 
The building of the church is upon this 
rock of confession. This faith is the 
foundation of the church; this faith hath 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; what 
this faith shall loose or bind is bound 
and loosed in heaven." 

In the writings of these Fathers, 
Peter loses his identity. The Catholic 
Church of to-day should either interpret 
Matt. 16: 18 correctly, or pull St. Augus- 
tine and St. Hilary down from their 
high pedestals and consign them to pur- 
gatory for having misinterpreted it. 
[Applause.] 

Permit me, just here, to digress a 



36 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

little and make myself perfectly clear to 
the Catholic Church of Columbus. Va- 
rious underhanded methods are being 
employed to prevent the progress of this 
course of lectures, the most diabolical 
being the veiled threat of the committee 
which sought to intimidate the officers 
of this church. 

When I was a boy, I played and 
fought fair, and the rule of my boyhood 
days is and will always be the rule of 
my adult life. I shall continue these 
lectures no matter what steps the opposi- 
tion may take. And, so far as public 
opinion is concerned, I propose, right 
now, to place the situation upon a higher 
plane than the one on which the priests 
and Knights of Columbus have pitched 
it. I, therefore, hereby challenge the 
priesthood of Columbus to meet me in 
public discussion [applause] in Memori- 
al Hall, this church, a Catholic church, 
or any other place that may be desig- 
nated. Tm prepared, whenever the 
challenge is accepted, to deny either or 
all of the following averments of Roman 
Catholicism: 



POPEDOM 37 

That Peter was the first pope. 

That apostoHc succession can be sus- 
tained. 

That the pope, when speaking ex 
cathedra, is infalHble. 

That the Roman Catholic Church is 
the church of Christ. 

That the confessional of the Cath- 
olic Church should be permitted by law. 

Catholic reporters, inform the priests 
to-morrow that my hat is in the ring, 
and tell them to either put up or shut 
up. [Applause.] I would rather meet 
a Catholic priest in debate before a 
Columbus audience than eat strawberries 
in January. [Applause.] 

And now that the Columbus situation 
is adjusted, so far as this end is con- 
cerned, we will wander back into the 
past and see what we can find. 

After disposing of Peter's case, the 
Roman Church proceeds to inform the 
world that Linus was the second pope. 

In 1 Cor. 12: 28 we read: ''God hath 
set some in the church, first apostles, 
secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers." 
Don't forget the order — the apostles are 



38 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

first. It is admitted by both Protestants 
and Romanists that the apostle John 
lived a number of years after Peter's 
death. Yet Rome declares a fellow by 
the name of Linus was made pope while 
an apostle was living! If the Lord 
authorized Paul to write 1 Cor. 12:28, 
placing the apostles first in the church, 
then appointed Linus the second pope, 
John had a just grievance and could 
have bankrupted the whole business. 
[Applause.] Poor old John! Think of 
him bending the knee to Mr. Linus and 
imploring the forgiveness of his sins! 
Roman Catholicism teaches, and practices 
too, that when a Christian dies, a finan- 
cial arrangement must be made by which 
his soul is to be gotten out of purgatory. 
There is no record of such a provision 
having been made for John, and we are 
left to conclude that the faithful old 
apostle — mysteriously forgotten— is still 
wondering when the pope will find time 
to present him with a transport to 
heaven ! [ Applause. ] 

And who was Linus? In 2 Tim. 
4:21 the name, with some others, is 



POPEDOM 39 

mentioned in a greeting, but nowhere 
else in the New Testament is reference 
made to it. And, so far as history is 
concerned, he is an obscure character — 
so obscure that we know scarcely any- 
thing about him except his name. His 
reign as Peter's successor, like practical- 
ly everything on which Romanism rests 
its claims, is purely traditional. And to 
make the situation more ridiculous still, 
while the Catholic Church now proclaims 
Linus the second pope, the early Fathers 
were divided on the subject. Irenseus, 
Eusebius, Jerome, and Augustine say 
Linus was the second pope. But Tertul- 
lian, Rufinus, and Epiphanius declare 
that, when Peter died, Clement became 
the head of the church. Therefore, we 
must recognize a two-headed Papacy 
almost in the beginning! 

But we will let this apostolic succes- 
sion razzle-dazzle slide. Catholics can 
no more sustain it than they can weave 
a cord of wind or tie a knot in water. 

As a matter of historic fact, there 
were no popes until early in the seventh 
century. 



40 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

During the first six centuries the seat 
of church government was first in the 
local congregation, then in councils and 
bishoprics. In the fourth century Con- 
stantine conceived the idea of making the 
government of the church conform to 
that of the state. He was a man of 
action, and proceeded at once to load 
the clergy with wealth, honor, and dig- 
nity. It so happened that the clergy 
was composed of men who, like all other 
men, were very human. And, as was 
perfectly natural, their human propensi- 
ties, like Pears' soap, floated on the sur- 
face; they were puffed up with pride 
and worldly ambitions, and fascinated 
by the smiles of temporary ease and 
pleasure. 

A bishopric was permanently estab- 
lished in Rome, and whenever the office 
was vacant there was a wild, disgrace- 
ful scramble for the place. Sometimes 
the election of a bishop was accompanied 
by bloodshed and general terror. 

Boniface III. was made bishop in 
605. He was ambitious like his pred- 
ecessors, and by far more foxy. He 



POPEDOM 41 

applied to Phocas, Emperor of Constan- 
tinople, who had succeeded to the throne 
by assassinating his predecessor, and 
was one of the most immoral and fiendish 
tyrants the world has ever known. This 
profligate emperor, who had a secret 
grudge against the Bishop of Constanti- 
nople, proclaimed Boniface Universal 
Bishop and declared the church at Rome 
head over all other churches. If you 
wish to verify this statement, read Baro- 
nius and other Romish historians. 

And so it turns out, according to 
history penned by Roman Catholics 
themselves, that ^^the man of sin . . . 
the son of perdition; who opposeth and 
exalteth himself above all that is called 
God or that is worshipped; so that he, 
as God, sitteth in the temple of God, 
showing himself that he is God" — pre- 
dicted by Paul in our text — was revealed 
in the year 606 in the person of a polit- 
ical trickster and at the hands of a vile 
emperor, whose subjects, unable to en- 
dure his iniquities, beheaded him and 
dragged his body through the streets! 
This, ladies and gentlemen, was the 



42 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

beginning of popedom in full-fledged, 
gaudy, intolerant, tyrannical glory. 
Catholics claim that the Lord named the 
first pope. History proves that the devil 
manufactured the monster. [Applause.] 

It has been announced that, with the 
exception of the first, these lectures 
would be loaded with rifle-balls. The 
gun, to-night, is loaded with popes. And 
I shall now pull the trigger and shoot 
some of them out. But I would advise 
you to do some good dodging. For if 
one of these holy, infallible popes should 
happen to hit you, you would have to be 
fumigated. [ Laughter. ] 

Boniface, the first legally plumed 
rooster of the Papal chicken-yard [laugh- 
ter], began at once to crow in lordly 
fashion over the universal church; and 
from then until now Roman Catholicism 
has persistently maintained that the pope 
is the logical ruler of the world. And 
when we read the lives of the popes we 
can not help exclaiming at the marvel- 
ous credulity of people who associate 
holiness and apostolic succession and 
infallibility with the Papal throne. 



POPEDOM 43 

Impartial history records and Cath- 
olic history admits that at times more 
than one man claimed to be the logical 
occupant of Peter's chair — affording the 
world, down to the end of time, the 
humor of a situation revealing two, and 
at one time three, popes, each with a 
tremendous following and claiming apos- 
tolic succession and infallibility! 

Also, impartial history records and 
Catholic history admits that, notwith- 
standing Rome's strait-laced position re- 
garding women, there was a time when 
two women governed the church. Maro- 
zia and Theodora — women so lewd that, 
were they in Columbus to-day, they 
would not be permitted to enter a re- 
spectable home — were the real popes. 
The recognized popes were their lovers, 
and they were the power behind the 
throne. 

And there's another character to 
whom I shall call your attention. 
Romanism, in its Papal chronology, not 
knowing what else to do with her, 
records Joan as a fabulous pope. She 
is said to have worn man's raiment, 



44 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

deceived her subjects, and occupied 
Peter's chair about two and a half years. 

Mr. Donnelly, a reputable ex-priest, 
says: 'There is little doubt but that 
Emperor Louis 11. received the imperial 
crown from the hands of Joan.'' 

''What!" I hear you Catholic people 
exclaim. "Are you dishing out the evi- 
dence of ex-priests!" 

I beg your pardon. If Donnelly is 
an objectionable witness, we will dismiss 
him. 

Mr. Donnelly will leave the witness- 
chair, and the clerk will strike out his 
evidence. 

Now, I wonder what I'm to do. Let 
me think a moment. I have it! 

Baronius ! Baronius ! Baronius ! 
Come into court! 

Ah! Mr. Baronius! I'm delighted to 
see you. Please be seated. There are 
some friends in the audience who will 
object to you, if they possibly can; hence 
I shall have to ask you a few questions. 

Where and when were you born? 

"I was born in Naples, Oct. 30, 
1538." 



POPEDOM 45 

What is your occupation? 

''Historian/' 

Is your history universally accepted 
as authentic? 

"It isr 

Were you very closely associated 
with the Vatican and the Papal throne? 

'1 was/' 

Please tell us, in your own words, 
about your relations to the Vatican. 

''I was first an ordinary priest, then 
father confessor to the pope, then car- 
dinal, and finally Vatican librarian." 

What! You were Vatican librarian? 

'1 was.'' 

Then you had access to all the Papal 
records ? 

'They were placed in my hands for 
safekeeping." 

Were you ever a candidate for the 
Papacy ? 

"Yes. In 1605 the cardinals of Rome 
made me their candidate." 

Were you elected? 

"No." 

Why? 

"I had previously taken a political 



46 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

position that was antagonistic to the 
Spanish part of the church, and the car- 
dinals from Spain secured my defeat." 

Now, my CathoUc friends, I have 
asked Cardinal Baronius these questions 
to convince you that he is a competent 
witness. He had charge of the Vatican 
library, was father confessor to the pope, 
came near being pope himself, and died 
in the Catholic faith. Listen to his evi- 
dence: 'Thus, according to the most 
authentic and unexceptional testimony, it 
is demonstrated that Pope Joan existed 
in the ninth century; that a woman occu- 
pied the chair of Peter, was the vicar of 
Christ on earth, and proclaimed sover- 
eign pontiff of Rome." 

Do you demand another witness? 

Du Pin! Du Pin! Du Pin! Come into 
court ! 

Take a seat, sir. Before hearing 
your testimony it will be necessary to 
prove your character. 

Bishop Purcell! Bishop Puree!!! 
Bishop Puree!!, of Cincinnati, Ohio! 
Come into court! 

Bishop Purcell, please quote to your 



POPEDOM 47 

Catholic brethren in this audience the 
testimony you volunteered concerning 
Du Pin in your celebrated debate with 
Alexander Campbell, held in Cincinnati 
in 1837. 

''Du Pin was a learned man. I would 
even select him as a splendid illustration 
of strength imparted to the human intel- 
lect by the Catholic intellectual disci- 
pline." 

Now, Mr. Du Pin. We will be glad 
to hear what you have to say about the 
woman Joan, who is said to have been 
pope. 

'This pope, according to Platina's 
reckoning, which is accounted the truest, 
is John the Ninth, for John the Eighth, 
Pope Joan, of whom the Roman Church 
is so much ashamed that they leave her 
blotted out of the catalogue of their 
popes; for though they allow their popes 
too many women, yet they will not endure 
to hear of a woman to be pope.'' 

This is not my testimony. It is the 
testimony of renowned Roman Catholics. 
And I would suggest to the Catholics of 
Columbus that they drive Bishop Purcell, 



48 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Cardinal Baronius, and Du Pin out of 
Steubenville. [ Laughter. ] 

But, after all has been said, the 
woman, Joan, notwithstanding the fact 
that the manner of her death revealed 
the immoral life she had led, was, so far 
as intellect and outward deportment and 
justice were concerned, a credit to the 
Papacy of her day. But I wish to add 
a question: If Joan be regarded as a 
fabulous pope, what became of apostolic 
succession during her two and a half 
years' occupancy of Peter's chair? [Ap- 
plause. ] 

It is hardly fair to your patience and 
sensibilities to drag this discussion 
through the filth of Papal history. But 
there's no other way. And it's next to the 
impossible to go down into a pit of slime 
and come out with garments that smell 
sweet. However, I promise that, to-night 
and throughout the series, I shall strive 
to be as clean as it is possible for a man 
to be while handling a dirty thing. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

The wicked woman Marozia had Pope 
John X. cast into prison and put to death. 



POPEDOM 49 

Then she had her own son, John XL 
made pope. He was a weakUng, and, 
throughout his pontificate, was subject to 
the baneful influences of his mother and 
brother. 

John XII. became pope in 956, when 
only eighteen years of age. Although 
Christ's vicar on earth, who sat in Peter's 
chair to speak ex cathedra, as the voice 
of God, and forgive the people's sins, this 
youth was so wild that had he lived 
to-day in Columbus — lax as are our laws 
— he would have spent most of his time 
in jail. When King Otho heard that 
John was running with the dissipated 
young men of the city and sowing a 
good-sized crop of ^'wild oats," he re- 
marked: ''Oh, well, the pope is young 
yet, and he may grow better as he grows 
older." [Laughter.] The time came, 
however, when Otho had to show his 
hand; the Papal disgrace could no longer 
be endured by even an emperor in the 
tenth century. The pope was indicted on 
the charge of incest, perjury, blasphemy, 
and murder. But he jumped his bail and 
fled, taking with him the treasure of the 



50 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

church. Leo VIIL was made pope in his 
stead. But Leo's reign was short, if 
not sweet. John organized his forces, 
returned to Rome, pulled Leo out of 
Peter's chair, and had himself made pope 
again; then continued his prodigal life 
on a still larger scale. His career ended 
very suddenly one day, when a married 
man is said to have returned home unex- 
pectedly and killed the pope — and I don't 
blame him for having done it. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Benedict IX. was also made pope at 
the age of eighteen. He was even worse 
than John XH. And, losing patience 
with their pope, the citizens of Rome rose 
up in their righteous indignation and 
drove him from the city — not once, but 
twice. But, through the emperor, Con- 
rad, he managed to return and continue 
his life of sin while forgiving other 
people's sins and getting them out of 
purgatory. And, finally, young-man-like, 
he decided to be a sure enough benedict 
and proposed marriage to his cousin. 
The fat was in the fire. This was the 
last straw that broke the camel's back. 



POPEDOM 51 

The pope was a blasphemer and a lecher, 
and his people learned to endure his vile 
life. But when he let it be known that 
he thought of committing the unpardon- 
able sin of matrimony, their patience 
snapped. His dream of a wife and a 
happy home threw the entire situation 
into confusion and resulted in a three- 
headed Papacy — Benedict IX., Sylvester 
III. and Gregory VI. all claiming to be 
pope at the same time. As Peter's chair 
was built for only one pope at a time, 
Pm surprised that the weight of three 
popes didn't squash it beyond repair. 
[Laughter.] 

Pius II. led a vile life, and excused 
himself for doing so by saying David 
and Solomon had been guilty of the 
same. 

Innocent VIII. married his own son 
in the palace, and presented the bridal 
couple with ten thousand ducats. And 
when his granddaughter was married, he 
had grown still more bold, and brazenly 
celebrated her marriage in the Vatican 
itself. 

Alexander VL decided that he would 



52 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

like to sit in Peter's chair for awhile, 
and hit upon a plan that worked like a 
charm. He bought it and paid for it — 
cash down. He was bold enough to 
acknowledge the paternity of a son after 
he became pope, and likewise made his 
own daughter his private secretary. 

Julius n. has accredited to him all 
the sins of his predecessors, and another 
— one that can not be mentioned in 
public. 

Leo X. might be called the fasting 
pope. Poor fellow! it's a wonder he 
didn't starve to death. He spent only 
eight thousand ducats ($18,400) per 
month on his table! [Laughter.] 

Stephen VH. was in a class all by 
himself. He was a high-tempered man, 
and one day decided to have some fun 
extraordinary. He had the body of his 
predecessor, Formosus, exhumed and 
tried for heresy. The dead pope was con- 
demned, his fingers were cut off, and he 
was thrown into the Tiber. It was a 
big joke the live pope played on the dead 
pope. But, unfortunately, the dead pope 
didn't see the point. [Laughter.] 



POPEDOM 53 

''But you are telling lies. You can't 
prove those things/' some of you are 
saying — just as you were overheard to 
say, in several parts of the building, last 
Sunday night. 

Do you think I'm bereft of my senses? 
I know that every word I utter is taken 
down stenographically, and faithfully re- 
ported to Roman headquarters. And I'm 
not idiotic enough to just start my mouth 
off and let it run wild. For every spe- 
cific charge I shall prefer against Roman- 
ism, throughout this series of lectures, I 
have the evidence. And if you demand 
sources of information, I shall not hesi- 
tate to tell you that the things I've stated 
concerning these infamous popes are 
recorded in the histories written by Ba- 
ronius, Du Pin, Alzog and Pastor — all 
Catholics who, as historians, had to 
sacrifice the reputation of their church 
upon the altar of accuracy. I could have 
gone outside, among the heathen, for 
evidence. But I preferred to keep it 
all in the family; hence I've given you 
Romanism's testimony against itself. 
[Applause.] 



54 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

And what Tve told you isn't a drop 
in the ocean. If you wade through 
Papal history, your discoveries will 
cause you to rub your eyes and think 
you are dreaming. You will find that 
John XIII. was strangled in prison; that 
Boniface VII. imprisoned Benedict VIL 
and starved him to death ; that the corpse 
of Boniface was dragged through the 
city; and that John XVI. was seized by 
an infuriated public, his eyes were put 
out, his nose was cut oflf, his tongue was 
torn from his mouth, and he was then 
tied to an ass — his head tailward — and 
forced to ride through the streets. Quite 
a gala day for an infallible pope! 
[Laughter.] 

You will discover that a surprising 
number of popes have been guilty of all 
the crimes in the category. And, fur- 
thermore, you will discover that even 
Catholic historians discuss these profli- 
gate popes in terms that I would not 
dare employ before an audience, for the 
reason that certain things which can not 
be uttered in public discourse can be 
written in books. 



POPEDOM 55 

In his debate with Mr. Campbell, 
Bishop Purcell admitted the indescrib- 
able vileness of many popes, and public- 
ly said he would not be surprised if they 
were in hell. I would advise Columbus 
Catholics to dig up Bishop Purcell and 
drive him out of Steubenville. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

If apostolic succession can be traced 
back through this filthy conglomeration 
of fiendish men and women, I can make 
huckleberry pie out of dead flies. 
[Laughter.] 

And if it can be proven that the 
popes have been holy and infallible men, 
I can prove that a colored woman, 
dressed up in white, is a fly in a pitcher 
of buttermilk. [Laughter.] 

The pope is no more infallible — ex 
cathedra or otherwise — and the vicar of 
Christ on earth than he's a poached tgg 
on toast in Kalamazoo. [Laughter.] 

The history of the Vatican, admitted 
by both Protestants and Catholics who 
have examined it, reeks with hypocrisy, 
drunkenness, immorality, blasphemy, 
murder, intrigue, and all grades of evil. 



56 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

as does the history of no other institu- 
tion known to man. And since so many 
who have occupied Peter's chair have 
been, according to reputable Roman his- 
torians themselves, devils incarnate, it is 
reasonable to suppose, in the language of 
Sheba's queen after she had looked upon 
Solomon's glory, that ''the half has never 
been told." All the vile deeds of in- 
famous men do not get into history. If 
the old Vatican could open its mouth and 
speak of the licentious banquets and 
secret conferences that have given birth 
to widespread outrage and all the de- 
composed fruit that has been shaken 
down from the evil tree within its walls, 
^ it could tell tales that would make the 

hair curl on a bald head. [Laughter.] 

My Catholic friends, I know you 
think I'm the most wicked man in Colum- 
bus. Nor do I blame you. Were I in 
your places, I would think so too. 
Taught as you have been, the things I 
say are blasphemy in your ears. But I'll 
guarantee that, if you exercise the pre- 
rogative of free men and women and 
post yourselves, you will change your 



POPEDOM 57 

minds. Doubtless you now think I 
ought to be driven out of Columbus. 
But if you will post yourselves by read- 
ing your own historians, you will verify 
every assertion I have made, and admit 
that I ought not to have been driven 
out of Steubenville. [Laughter.] If, in- 
stead of depending on what your priests 
tell you and the literature they recom- 
mend, you will read the history of your 
church, then read the New Testament, 
the doctrines of apostolic succession and 
Papal infallibility will snap before the 
winds of your reason like reeds in the 
path of a cyclone. I especially recom- 
mend Alzog's ''Manual of Universal 
Church History" and Pastor's ''Lives of 
the Popes.'' These are Catholic authors, 
and I know you will agree that when I 
ask you to consult them I'm proceeding 
on the square and in nowise trying to 
take advantage of you. 

We live in an age of light — Bible 
light, historic light, scientific light. And 
it is the privilege of all to come out of 
the darkness of tradition, superstition 
and prejudice and dwell in the light. 



58 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Protestantism isn't yet what it ought to 
be, by a long shot. And in the seventh 
lecture of this series I shall apply the 
blade of truth to Protestantism and cause 
it to cut right and left. You Catholics 
are hereby invited to hear that lecture. 
'There'll be a hot time in the old tov^n'' 
that night! [Applause.] And if the 
Protestants take it into their heads to 
run me out of Columbus, Til go back to 
Steubenville. [ Laughter. ] 

"We are living, we are dwelling, 
In a grand and awful time, 
In an age on ages telling; 
To be living is sublime.'' 

The world is advancing. The light 
is kissing the hilltops, and the darkness 
is fleeing. The ''man of sin" has been 
weighed in the balances and found want- 
ing. The handwriting on the wall de- 
clares that the Vatican is doomed. 
Romanism has become top-heavy in the 
old countries; its traditions and supersti- 
tions and image-worship and opposition 
to general progress have failed to elevate 
the nations it has dominated. And, as I 
shall prove in the last lecture, it is 



POPEDOM 59 

preparing to wage its greatest and last 
battle in America. Protestantism is now 
in a state of transition, out of which it 
will pass into union, eternal vigilance, 
determination and solidarity of effort, 
and our children will fight the battle 
royal! The light will conquer. Roman 
Catholicism will become a memory, and 
the doctrine of apostolic succession and 
Papal infallibility will be regarded as 
ancient theological freaks. And when 
truth prevails over error, Christ, the 
Heaven-ordained and only Head of the 
church, will step forth in all his regal 
splendor. Then the world will bring 
forth its royal diadem and crown him 
King of kings and Lord of lords! [Ap- 
plause.] 



III. 

THE PRIESTHOOD. 
(1 Tim. 4: 1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-9.) 

I was told this morning that there 
has been some speculation as to the text 
I would announce to-night. Friends, I 
know you mean well, and I appreciate 
your solicitude. But you need not lose 
any sleep over my texts. There is no 
law compelling a man to ''take a text" 
when he preaches, and I, for one, would 
not hesitate to preach without a text if 
it were necessary. But in the discussion 
of the subjects before us it is not neces- 
sary to go bounding along without texts. 
There are texts a-plenty. They are 
piled up in the corners, they are lying 
around loose on the floors, they are hang- 
ing on nails in the walls, they are sus- 
pended from the ceilings, they are every- 
where in this [holding up the Bible] 
storehouse! And, if I can see straight, 
a number of the statements contained in 

60 



THE PRIESTHOOD 61 

the passages I have just read strikingly 
introduce this evening's theme. 

Paul was a great preacher, a true 
prophet, a profound thinker, and a man 
of wonderful piety. But if he had any 
personal ambitions, he certainly lacked 
discretion. Had he not blundered along 
and written this scathing forecast of an 
order of men — now historic — in the 
church, he, instead of Peter, might have 
been the first pope. [Laughter.] 

You will recall the reported'^ pronun- 
ciamento, from headquarters, that the 
third lecture of this series would not be 
delivered. The past week — long and 
dreary, full of suspense, and like a 
hideous nightmare — now lies buried, be- 
side its ancestors, in the graveyard of 
time. Peace to its ashes, and may its 
ghost never return to scratch on the wall. 
[Laughter.] The moment for the for- 
bidden lecture to begin is now at hand. 



*The report that the assistant priest at Broad Street Cathe- 
dral had made the prediction above referred to had spread 
throughout the city, and all kinds of rumors were afloat con- 
cerning Mr. Rutledge*s prospective assassination. The report 
reached a town sixty miles away, and one hundred men of the 
town organized themselves to protect the meeting in which this 
lecture was delivered. But Mr. Rutledge declined their services. 



62 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

And I wish to add that, if I don't pull off 
this little stunt, some mighty quick work 
will have to be done. [Prolonged ap- 
plause.] 

Last Sunday night, when referring 
to just a little of the spectacular corrup- 
tion connected with the Papal chair, I 
subpoenaed Roman Catholic historians as 
witnesses. To-night and next Sunday 
night, while calling on the Roman 
Church for some of the testimony needed 
and likewise drawing on other sources 
of information, I shall present at least 
three ex-priests as witnesses, and ask 
you, as a jury, to decide upon the merits 
of their testimony. 

Father Chiniquy, who spent fifty 
years in the Roman Church, then devoted 
the remainder of his life to a refutation 
of her doctrines. He will be a special 
witness in the next lecture. 

Father Donnelly, who was a priest 
fifteen years — the last five years of his 
ministry having been in All Saints' 
Church, Mercer, Pa. Before an immense 
audience, composed of Catholics and 
Protestants, in the town where he had 



THE PRIESTHOOD 63 

lived and ministered and was universally 
respected, he renounced Roman Catholi- 
cism. He is, therefore, a reliable witness. 
And when I mention the name of the 
third witness, I apprehend that those of 
you who are up to date in your reading 
will interrupt me by insisting that you 
have a right to make a noise with your 
hands. [ "Crowley V ''Crowley !'' was 
heard all over the house.] This man 
tried to reform the Catholic priesthood 
from within, and for a number of years 
he labored and hoped. He was a priest 
against whom his enemies could prefer 
no substantial charge, and he remained 
in the Roman priesthood until he was 
good and ready to quit it. He has a 
standing offer — published far and wide — 
of ten thousand dollars for any one who 
will prove that he was excommunicated, 
or that any of the charges published in 
his books are untrue. He is the Luther 
of America. He is the man most 
dreaded by the Catholic Church, because 
he knows the most about it, has the 
courage of his convictions, and enjoys the 
confidence of the American people. He 



64 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

is a strong man physically, and will 
doubtless live many years yet. He is an 
intellectual giant, a facile writer, and a 
powerful orator. His name is Jeremiah 
J. Crowley. [Tremendous applause.] 

I have previously said that Tm not 
speaking against Catholic people, but 
against Roman Catholicism — the system. 
And I shall probably refer to this distinc- 
tion on future occasions. For there are 
people here for the first time each Sun- 
day night, and I want all to know what 
Fm shooting at. While, in one way and 
another, some Catholics seem to be gun- 
ning for me, Fm not gunning for Cath- 
olics, but for Roman Catholicism. And, 
judging from the profound silence with 
which my challenge to the Columbus 
priesthood has been received, I believe 
I have the game treed and am, now 
and then, making a center-shot. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

A Catholic of good standing in the 
city said to an officer of this church, 
^Tell that preacher to go ahead — he's 
telling the truth.'' [Applause.] 

Also, last Sunday night, a gentleman 



THE PRIESTHOOD 65 

said to another officer of the church, 'Tm 
a Catholic. But Tm done with the 
whole dirty business/' [Applause.] 

And now, briefly as possible, let us 
look at this system in its relation to the 
priesthood. 

All ex-priests and others who have 
examined the subject testify that Roman 
Catholic theology deals with subjects 
every pure young man should shun and 
in language anything but chaste. 

A few weeks ago a gentleman — a 
business man of high standing and an 
officer in a Protestant church — told some 
other men and myself in yonder vestibule 
that he was partially educated for the 
Catholic priesthood; that the further he 
got into the course all young priests 
must take, the more disgusting it be- 
came, and that finally he had to hold 
his nose and quit. [Applause.] 

Donnelly, in his ''Fifteen Years Be- 
hind the Curtains," says: 'The whole 
moral code of Rome is so vile and sensual 
that it can not bear an English transla- 
tion — it has to be concealed away in 
Latin.'' And he adds: "Any bookstore 



66 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

that would venture to sell a literal trans- 
lation of the moral theology of Gury or 
Scavani, both of which are standard 
class-books in Roman Catholic seminaries 
for the young levites of the Romish 
priesthood, would be prosecuted for sell- 
ing obscene literature." 

And as an early result of this im- 
moral training, Crowley states, on page 
410 of his book, ''Romanism a Menace 
to the Nation,'' that in American Cath- 
olic seminaries young priests form asso- 
ciations in which membership depends 
upon the applicant's ability to tell ribald 
stories. 

Add to this seminary training the 
further facts that priests must wear the 
cloak of celibacy, and that the Catholic 
Church forgives sins on easy terms. 
Then add two other facts: (1) Priests 
are good livers (and high living does not 
diminish human propensities), and (2) 
no class of men on earth are kept in 
such constant touch with temptation as 
priests. And when you have finished 
all this adding, crown your pyramid of 
facts with still another, the greatest and 



THE PRIESTHOOD 67 

most serious of all — the priest is a man. 
He may wear his vest upside down 
[laughter] and his collar back side front 
[laughter], and read his book on the 
street-car and be called ''Holy father"; 
but the fact remains, he's a man. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Now, we have linked with the Cath- 
olic priesthood the law of cause and 
effect. Let's see how it works. 

The pope is a man. We have already 
seen how easy it is for him, staggering 
under the weight of this iniquitous sys- 
tem, to tumble down the back stairway. 
Bishop Purcell acknowledged that some 
of the popes were in hell. The parish 
priest is far removed, in rank, from the 
chair of infallibility. He's so far away 
the pope would have to look at him 
through a telescope. Therefore, why 
should any one expect him to carry the 
burden and not wabble? [Applause.] 

Catholic historians, themselves, paint 
the priesthood of past centuries as black 
as they do the Papacy — and that's say- 
1^? a good deal. Scan the pages of his- 
tory, and you will wonder that God did 



68 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

not strike the church with the Hghtning 
of his displeasure and blot it out of exist- 
ence. 

Pope Paul IV. decided to clean house. 
He issued an edict that every woman 
who had just cause to prefer charges 
against a priest should do so or suffer 
the humiliation of Papal censure. Rome 
was stirred from center to circumference. 
The charges were not wanting. It took 
ten clerks, who worked daily — except on 
holy days — four months to record the 
names of offending priests and the 
charges preferred, and still the task was 
not finished. The poor pope saw that he 
would have scarcely any priests left 
And, deciding that it was the wrong time 
of year to clean house, he dropped his 
broom and took to the woods. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

The Council of Cologne declared that 
the greatest evil of the sixteenth century 
was the impurity of the clergy. 

Bellarmine, a Roman Catholic author- 
ity I now introduce for the first time, 
wrote: "In the one true church, the holy 
Roman Catholic Church, are great sin- 



THE PRIESTHOOD 69 

ners, and that not only concealed, 
but manifest. The immoralities of the 
Roman Catholic priesthood have, time 
and again, been condemned by councils 
of the church, but to no purpose/' 

As we pursue history, we discover 
that the mighty river of priestly vice, 
which had its origin back in the centuries 
of this degrading system, gets wider as 
it flows on. And why should we seek 
pure water in a stream whose fountain- 
head is polluted? 

And why linger back in an age that 
is gone? The system is the same — it is 
the proud boast of Romanism that it 
never changes. The priests are men, just 
as they were in the sixteenth century, 
and human nature is the same. The law 
of cause and effect is unchanged. From 
what viewpoint, therefore, can it be 
argued that the river of priestly iniquity 
has dried up and that where it once rolled 
in unterrified gaiety, there now blooms 
a golden streak of fragrant daisies? 
[Laughter.] 

Missionaries and tourists all tell the 
same story — informing us that on the 



70 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

mission fields, and especially in Catholic- 
ridden countries, it is an open secret that 
priests are intemperate and immoral men. 

After returning from his Southern 
tour, Robert E. Speer wrote: ''What- 
ever may be the case in other lands, evi- 
dence, legally convincing and morally 
sickening, confronting one in every dis- 
trict, proves that in South America the 
stream of the church is polluted at its 
fountains/' 

''But that's down on the other side 
of the big ditch. Come back home, and 
tell us of the situation here,'' I fancy you 
are saying. All right. We will walk 
about in the United States awhile. The 
trail's getting hot now, and the hunt's 
interesting. [ Applause. ] 

One night, after twelve o'clock, dur- 
ing my younger years, I happened to be 
in the Turkish bath department of a 
Catholic hospital, when I personally saw 
a half-dozen priests drink until they were 
intoxicated, and heard them compare ex- 
periences and tell stories that would 
have caused "Holy Terror Jim" and 
'Tizen Pete" of the ranch, fifty years 



THE PRIESTHOOD 71 

ago, to have acknowledged that they had 
lost the art of vulgarity. 

During my first pastorate, in a west- 
ern New York town, I was spending the 
day at the home of a member of the 
church who lived in the country. Just 
after dinner the little son of the hired 
man fell from a load of hay, was pierced 
by a pitchfork, and bled to death before 
medical assistance could be procured. 
The father, a Catholic, became hysterical, 
and begged that some one should imme- 
diately carry the sad message to the 
priest. I had met the priest — an elderly 
man — and, telling the heartbroken father 
I knew his pastor, I volunteered to go. 
At the door I was informed that the 
''holy father" was very ill and could not 
be seen. But, hearing his voice within 
and concluding that he was not at death's 
door, I pushed past the housekeeper and 
entered. The sick man was hanging on 
a chair,, like a rag, beside a table which 
contained a bottle, glass tumbler, and all 
the fixings. [Laughter.] I tried to de- 
liver my message, but he could not com- 
prehend it. He poured a liberal drink. 



72 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

pushed it across the table, and insisted 
that I should take it. But he had been 
slobbering in that same tumbler, and I 
declined. [ Laughter. ] 

About four years ago my family and 
I summered in a small Pennsylvania 
town. We repeatedly heard references 
to the sterling qualities of the former 
priest. But the townspeople did not hesi- 
tate to say that the priest then at the 
head of the parish was a drunkard and 
a rounder. 

Go where you may, and you will hear 
gossip about the Catholic priesthood. 
And it is said that ''where there is so 
much smoke, there must be some fire.'^ 

I do not say all priests are bad; I do 
not believe they are. But I do say the 
system is degrading to the priesthood, 
and that the priest who withstands the 
temptations with which the system con- 
stantly surrounds him is a man of iron 
nerve and a will like Gibraltar. [Ap- 
plause.] Donnelly asserts that fully 
eighty per cent of the Catholic clergy 
are intemperate men. If this be cor- 
rect, the remaining twenty per cent keep 



THE PRIESTHOOD 73 

Straight despite the millstone the system 
hangs about their necks. 

And now I would suggest that our 
friends — the Catholic reporters — sharpen 
their pencils. For, instead of dealing in 
remote history, community gossip, and 
personal reminiscences, I shall give them 
some items of a more specific nature to 
jot down and deliver at headquarters to- 
morrow. [ Applause. ] 

William Lloyd Clark, of Milan, 111., 
has published a booklet, entitled ''Crimes 
of Priests,'' in which he designates more 
than 130 cases — giving names, dates, 
places, and crimes. The priests he names 
are nearly all located in the United States, 
twelve are located in Ohio, and the 
name of one is associated with our own 
city. 

He even includes in this black list the 
name of Cardinal Gibbons, specifying 
that this distinguished prelate was sued 
in court for taking financial advantage 
of a dying woman. Fifty-six are accused 
of the crime the system is most likely 
to develop; twelve are charged with the 
crime for which negroes are lynched in 



74 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

the South; eighteen are said to have 
gotten money in irregular ways; one is 
placed under the ban of an unmention- 
able sin; some are branded murderers; 
others are put in the outlaw class of 
illicit distillers and unauthorized liquor- 
venders; nearly all are pronounced 
drunkards; and one — Father Andrew, 
of Canary, N. Y. — is declared to have 
stolen a horse. [Laughter.] My Cath- 
olic friends, I do not prefer these 
charges. Fve never met either Mr. 
Clark or any of the priests, bishops, or 
cardinals he accuses. Nor do I know 
whether or not any of the men in this 
list have been guilty. But I do know 
one thing: If Mr. Clark, or any other 
man, ever charges me with one single 
crime mentioned in this book, he'll stand 
a lawsuit. Til clear my good name if it 
takes until the day of judgment. And if 
I fail to get redress in the courts, either 
my accuser or I will go to the hospital 
for repairs. [Applause.] Some of the 
priests and bishops Clark accuses of 
crime are dead. But others are living. 
Why, I ask, is Clark permitted to go 



THE PRIESTHOOD 75 

where he pleases — emphasizing these 
charges from the platform? And why 
is he permitted to send this book through 
the mails to every city, town, and hamlet 
in the country, if it contains nothing but 
vile slander? 

Crowley is another man, running 
loose, who, if, in his books and lectures, 
he prefers false charges, could and ought 
to be sent to the penitentiary. 

In one chapter of ''Romanism a Men- 
ace to the Nation," he specifies twenty- 
eight cases, declaring that he has the 
evidence to sustain them up his sleeve 
whenever Rome is ready to clean house. 

He minutely describes his efiforts to 
reform the priesthood in and about Chi- 
cago, and gives the names and addresses 
of fourteen priests who were associated 
with him in that memorable campaign. 
He informs the public that he, together 
with these priests (all of whom could 
be subpoenaed as witnesses), presented 
the names of offending priests, the 
charges preferred against them, and the 
evidence in hand, to the Bishop of Chi- 
cago, who ignored the entire situation, 



76 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

his only comment being that while the 
Chicago priesthood was bad, the New 
York priesthood was worse ! He further 
states that the names, charges, and evi- 
dence were registered to Leo XIII. But 
the Pope was out of stamps and made no 
reply. [Applause.] He then adds that 
after Leo's death and the election, the 
document of names and charges and evi- 
dence was registered to Pius X. But, 
until the present moment, the new pope 
has been too busy to give that little 
American matter any attention! [Ap- 
plause.] But this is not all. He avers 
that a Catholic Laymen's Association 
was formed to protect their women from 
the Chicago priesthood, and that the ap- 
peals of this association were turned 
down cold. He tells us that on June 
15, 1903, a prominent Catholic woman 
of Chicago — representing an effort upon 
the part of Catholic women in that city 
to protect tliemselves — secured an audi- 
ence with the bishop; that the bishop ad- 
mitted his personal knowledge of seven 
bad priests in his diocese; and that she 
said to him: '^You have been bishop only 



THE PRIESTHOOD 77 

three months and have discovered seven; 
when you shall have been bishop six 
months, you will have discovered seventy- 
seven!'' And he continues his astound- 
ing revelation by declaring that Peter 
J. Muldoon, one of the black-listed 
priests, was an almost successful candi- 
date for bishop while under the fire of 
these charges. 

On page 413 of his book are the 
pictures of a priest and the church of 
which he was rector. He calls this man 
by name, declares that he established a 
married woman in a home of his own, 
that he robbed his own church treasury 
by forging his bishop's name, and that 
he is now teaching in a Catholic college 
(the name and location given) and edit- 
ing a Catholic paper (the name and post- 
office named). 

And on page 72 of this book is a 
picture of a palatial home he affirms was 
ruined by the Catholic priesthood. And 
Crowley offers ten thousand dollars 
reward for proof that any of his charges 
are false! 

The Catholic press offers the apology 



78 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

that Crowley is not worth ten thousand 
dollars, hence it would be folly to sue 
him for slander. 

I have no knowledge of Mr. Crow- 
ley's finances; for aught I know, he may 
be insolvent. However, he enjoys his 
liberty. I have no way of knowing 
whether his charges are true or false. 
But I do know that when the picture 
of a wealthy Chicago home is printed 
under a man's name, and he charges 
that the Catholic priesthood of a named 
diocese accomplished its ruin, the courts 
would recognize the camera as a witness 
and that the author of the charge — if 
it be false — would learn a trade behind 
stone walls. [Applause.] And I know- 
that when a man specifies serious charges 
in a book — giving names, dates of alleged 
crimes, and the present whereabouts of 
the persons accused — he has the evidence 
or he's an idiot of the smallest caliber. 
[Applause.] I've never met Mr. Crow- 
ley. But I'm informed that his hat-band 
measures more than five and a quarter. 
[Applause.] 

Why is Crowley as free as a bird? 



THE PRIESTHOOD 79 

Why does he keep his ten thousand dol- 
lars ? Why are he and Clark, and dozens 
of others, all free? Why are their books 
advertised, sold, and sent through the 
mails unmolested? Why is the Roman 
Church as silent as the Sphinx? There 
must be a reason. [Applause.] 

But why condemn the Catholic priest- 
hood when every crime charged against 
it can be charged against the Protestant 
ministry? I know this question is in 
some of your minds, and it's pertinent, 
ril answer it. 

When a Protestant preacher goes 
wrong, it's good-by Protestant preacher! 
Every one knows that it's difficult for 
a Protestant minister to hold his job 
when he isn't bad. If an opinionated, 
short-sighted man or a dyspeptic, long- 
nosed woman decides to sneeze at a 
Protestant preacher, he has to call his 
dog and beat it. [Laughter.] I don't 
mean he beats his dog — he beats the 
road to the next town. [Laughter.] 
Protestant ministers must walk straight. 
I know, for I've had experience. 
[Laughter.] I mean experience in walk- 



80 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

ing straight. [Laughter.] But when a 
CathoHc priest can no longer be tolerated 
by his church or community, he's trans- 
ferred, the ex-priests and others who are 
informed tell us, to another charge. And 
this is the extent of his punishment. 
Crowley names living priests, prefers the 
most serious charges against them, and 
declares that their bishops punished them 
by administering the ''transfer treat- 
ment." 

Those of you who are disposed to 
criticize me adversely, have discovered 
that I prove my propositions. Hence, 
the euphonious word "liar'' is no longer 
heard in the audience. [Applause.] But 
you have to talk and you have framed 
up another charge. Last Sunday night 
several of you were overheard to say: 
''He's doing all this for money!" You 
are mistaken. I'm not a Catholic priest! 
[Laughter.] 

I'll tell you why I'm delivering these 
lectures. For years, I've felt that no 
preacher does his whole duty when he 
preaches against hypocrisy, drink, gam- 
bling, bad politics, heathenism. Mormon- 



THE PRIESTHOOD 81 

ism, Christian Science, and other reHg- 
ious cults, and the devil in general, and 
hesitates to open his mouth against 
Roman Catholicism — the most universal, 
high-browed, treacherous, intriguing, 
political wire-pulling, dangerous power 
of the Christian era. [Applause.] 

But, like many another preacher, I 
shrank from the ordeal. Finally I looked 
in the mirror and said: ''You old hypo- 
crite! You tell other people to do their 
duty, but you are not doing yours. Now, 
old fellow, you must get on the job at 
once and make up for lost time!" [Ap- 
plause. ] 

But when one begins the perform- 
ance of duty, he finds it pleasant. I can 
testify that preaching against Romanism 
is like taking a surf-bath; after the first 
plunge, it's exhilarating! [Applause.] 
And to all my brother ministers, I would 
like to say : "Come in. The water's fine !'' 
[Applause.] 

But I counted the cost before plung- 
ing. I know ril be a marked man the 
remainder of my days. If I ever run 
for President, every Catholic in the 



82 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

country will vote against me. [Laugh- 
ter.] But duty is right. And '1 would 
rather be right than be President." [Ap- 
plause.] 

However, since some of you have 
been generous enough to accuse me of 
''salting down" the coin, TU refer to an- 
other feature of the Catholic system 
which I would otherwise have overlooked. 

Doubtless, both Catholics and Prot- 
estants frequently wonder where priests 
get money with which to live so well, 
pull off carousals on the side, and leave 
large estates — as many of them do. 

Crowley affirms that priests, as a rule, 
are grafters. He specifies that the priest 
takes his toll from all offerings, a partial 
list of which I shall hastily name: ''Holy 
Orders," "Anniversary," "Baptismal," 
"Penance," "First Communion," "Con- 
firmation," "Extreme Unction," "Fu- 
neral," "Purgatorial," "Consecration," 
"Mass," "The Paulist Fathers," "The 
Poor Box," "St. Anthony," "Relic," 
"Easter and Christmas," "Indulgence," 
"Mission," "Undertaking," "Employ- 
ment," etc. 



THE PRIESTHOOD 83 

In other words, according to his tes- 
timony, while the Sisters are asking alms 
for Catholic charitable institutions and 
unthinking Protestants say, "The Cath- 
olic Church does much good and is to 
be commended for its self-sacrifice," the 
priests are living on the fat of the land, 
many of them spending more money in a 
single night than some of their loyal 
parishioners make in a week. And, still, 
they accumulate money! 

Crowley charges — and offers any one 
ten thousand dollars to prove it false — 
that the average priest in the smaller 
cities has an income of not less than 
ten thousand dollars per year, and that 
the average priest in the great city parish 
enjoys an annual income of at least one 
hundred thousand dollars. If I were in 
the money-making business, I would 
rather be the priest of a large city parish 
than President of the United States! 

The average Protestant minister re- 
ceives a small salary. Were I a woman, 
nothing in the whole wide world could 
induce me to marry a Protestant 
preacher — except the preacher himself. 



84 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

[Laughter.] But if I were a woman and 
wanted the luxury of money, and Cath- 
ohc priests could have wives, I would 
select a good-looking one and marry him 
in spite of all he could do. [Laughter.] 

Catholic friends, don't be deceived 
into thinking that Protestant ministers 
are getting rich; they are not. Look 
to your own priests; they are counting 
the cash. [Applause.] If the average 
priest is not making more money than 
the average business man in his parish, 
prove that he isn't, then get Crowley's 
ten thousand dollars and lend me ten of 
it. [Laughter.] 

If Catholic priests, as a rule, are not 
'^covetous," ''incontinent," ''traitors," and 
^'lovers of pleasure more than lovers of 
God," and if they do not "creep into 
houses and lead captive silly women," 
they are the biggest fools on earth. For, 
everywhere, men of financial standing 
prefer these charges against them — both 
in a general and a specific way — from the 
platform and in books, pamphlets, and 
periodicals. The Catholic Church has 
money, political pull, and judicial influ- 



THE PRIESTHOOD 85 

ence, and if these charges are false, she 
could put stripes on Crowley, Clark, the 
editor of the Menace, et al. And she 
could do more. She could prefer and 
sustain charges against the Postmaster- 
General for permitting these accusations 
against her priests to speed through the 
mails from ocean to ocean and Lakes to 
Gulf 365 days a year. And she could 
hold the ^'big stick" over the President 
and his Cabinet, and make them go to 
St. Patrick's on Thanksgiving Day, and 
kiss the Pope's toe till the crack of doom. 
[Applause.] Catholic priests have every 
advantage to defend themselves. And if 
they are innocent of the charges, so uni- 
versally preferred against them, it's my 
opinion that they haven't sense enough 
to come in out of the rain, and ought to 
be locked up for their own protection. 
[Laughter.] 

I close with an emphasis upon a state- 
ment in the ninth verse of the second 
text I read: 'Their folly shall be mani- 
fest unto all men." Nor will that mani- 
festation be deferred until the last great 
day. We are living in an X-ray age — an 



86 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

age which decHnes to be Winded, an age 
which pries into everything, and insists 
upon peering into the very Hves and 
hearts of people. ''There is nothing con- 
cealed that shall not be revealed." His- 
tory and current comment point the 
finger of suspicion at the Roman Catholic 
priesthood. That priesthood is on the 
defensive. And, within the next few 
years, it will be compelled to do one of 
two things: prove itself innocent, or get 
down on its knees in the confessional of 
public opinion and acknowledge its guilt. 
[Applause.] 



IV. 

THE AURICULAR CONFESSION. 
(1 John 1:9.) 

Every system that accomplishes any- 
thing must have a mainspring, or, to put 
it in another way, a central or chief 
source of power. And during the last 
seven centuries Roman Catholicism has 
depended very largely upon the auricular 
confession. 

The auricular confession is the dis- 
closure by word of mouth of sins upon 
the part of a penitent into the aiiris, or 
ear, of a priest. Hence the curtained 
recess in every Catholic church called 
the *'confessional-box.'' 

To-night I shall submit and confine 
my remarks to three propositions, and if 
I fail to prove them, I'll ''eat 'em alive." 
[Laughter.] 

1. That it took the devil twelve hun- 
dred years to make that little box. 

2. That it paid him to make it. For 

87 



88 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

of all the boxes in the world in which 
he has an investment, the confessional- 
box has yielded, and still yields him, the 
largest return. 

3. That God is the only logical and 
Scriptural confessor to whom penitents 
should go. [Applause.] 

There is not a hint of the auricular 
confession in the Old Testament. Doubt- 
less the devil would have been highly 
pleased to have had a confessional-box 
in Solomon's Temple. But, evidently, he 
never found an opportunity to sneak into 
that splendid edifice, with a bundle of 
planks under his arm, and pen off a little 
corner for his own amusement. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

Nor is there a trace of the confession- 
al-box in the New Testament. We read 
about churches in Jerusalem, Rome, 
Corinth, and other places; we read about 
elders or bishops, and preachers, and the 
people composing the congregations; and 
we read about meetings that were held, 
missionary journeys that were made, 
church tribunals that were called, per- 
secutions that were endured, and other 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 89 

features of early church Hfe; but we 
never read of the confessional or priestly 
absolution. 

Hence the history of Roman Catholi- 
cism itself must introduce the auricular 
confession. 

The Council of Trent declared: 
''Whoever shall say that the mode of 
secretly confessing to a priest alone, 
which the Catholic Church has always 
observed and still observes, is foreign to 
the institution and command of Christ 
and is a human invention, let him be 
accursed/' 

Well, I presume I'm about to be ac- 
cursed. For I shall now say that the 
confessional is not only ''foreign to the 
institution and command of Christ,'' and 
therefore a human institution, but that 
the Catholic Church worried along a 
number of centuries without it. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

It's one thing to make an assertion, 
but quite another to prove it. The Cath- 
olic Church asserts that the auricular 
confession has always been associated 
with her polity. But there's not a 



90 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Roman Catholic in the world — from the 
richly adorned pope down to the little, 
petticoated parish priest — who can prove 
it. [Applause.] 

Had the confessional-box, which is 
to-day the very heart-throb of Roman- 
ism, been connected with church life in 
the early centuries, the primitive Fathers, 
on whom both Catholics and Protestants 
must depend for early church history, 
would undoubtedly have made some ref- 
erence to it. I could name the men who 
would have written about the confession- 
al, had it existed in their day, and the 
works in which such references would 
have been made. But life is too short 
to walk a mile when the distance can 
be covered with a jump. [Laughter.] 
I shall, therefore, resort to a method that 
is by far the easier and just as sure. As 
the million dollars I offered a couple of 
weeks ago, to the man who would prove 
that Peter was ever in Rome, has not 
yet been called for. Til give it to the 
layman, priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope 
who will produce one sentence from the 
Fathers in proof of the Catholic proposi- 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 91 

tion that the confessional existed in their 
day. [Applause.] 

In the meantime, while waiting for 
some one to produce the sentence, I'll 
refer you to a book, entitled "Confes- 
sions,'' by Augustine, the greatest of the 
Latin Fathers. Had the confessional 
existed in his day, one would think that 
in this work he would have made at 
least a reference to it. But he did not. 
Instead, he wrote many things which 
prove that he taught and practiced the 
very reverse of this blasphemous doc- 
trine now taught and practiced by the 
Catholic Church. And here's one of his 
terse statements: "I shall confess my 
sins to God, and he will pardon all my 
iniquities." 

In this particular, at least, Augustine 
was orthodox, if we measure him by the 
New Testament. But if measured by 
Roman Catholic standards, instead of 
being "sainted" he ought to be "ac- 
cursed," dumped back into purgatory 
where he belongs, and chained to an iron 
post in the hottest corner. [Applause.] 

Innocent III., proclaimed by Catholics 



92 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

as a holy man and one of the great 
popes, at whose hands, as any reputable 
encyclopaedia will inform you, the bloody 
crusade against the Albigenses was or- 
ganized; the pope who dispatched an 
army of priests throughout all Europe 
to stir up sentiment against heretics; the 
pope who so thirsted for universal domin- 
ion that he hesitated not to bathe his 
hands, ex officio, in the innocent blood 
of multitudes — this power-loving, cruel, 
red-handed monster of hellish deeds 
(than which history records none that 
was more diabolical) was the originator 
of the auricular confession. He was the 
sovereign dictator of and inspired all that 
was accomplished in the fourth Council 
of Lateran, which, by its twenty-first 
canon, authorized the auricular confes- 
sion. If any man will produce history 
to prove that prior to the year 1215 there 
was an authorized confessional-box in 
any Catholic church. Til reduce my estate 
by another million and deposit it in his 
bank. [Laughter.] You need entertain 
no fears concerning my financial future 
or the present condition of my purse 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 93 

— the millions rm offering will never 
be called for. [Applause.] 

This historic council, governed by 
Innocent III., which decreed the exter- 
mination of heretics, the blasphemous 
doctrine of transubstantiation and the 
iniquitous confessional, stands out 
against the sky-line of past events brazen 
as the sun in its abominable heresies, 
arrayed in garments that smell of venge- 
ance across the centuries, and painted 
red with human blood. This assembly 
pulled the very heart out of hell and 
established it in the breast of the church. 
The benediction on that council should 
have been: 

"Praise the devil, 

From whom all iniquities flow !'' 

[Applause.] 
Ladies and gentlemen, I insist that 
I have proven the first proposition — that 
after a persistent effort, twelve centuries 
long, by which he gradually reduced the 
church to a state of degradation which 
made it like putty in his hands, the 
devil himself, using the fourth Council 
of Lateran for a hammer, nailed together 



94 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

and set up that little confessional-box 
in yonder cathedral [pointing toward 
St. Joseph's Cathedral on East Broad 
Street] . [Applause. ] 

And now, that I may prove the 
second proposition (that it paid the devil 
to make this box), I shall ask you to 
look while I show you a few of the 
assets he has gotten, and is still getting, 
out of it. 

Children sometimes play with a little 
box which, when a spring is touched, 
flies open, and all kinds of hideous things 
jump up. I'm now ready to begin 
touching a spring in the confessional- 
box, and, for awhile, some of the most 
frightful imps of history and the present 
day will jump up and try to stare you 
out of countenance. Nor will they be 
hobgoblins; they will be terrible realities. 
But don't be alarmed. I have them 
securely chained, and I'll not let them 
bite you. [Laughter.] 

The first little imp that jumps up is 
the historic indulgence, and when we look 
at it awhile, it assumes considerable pro- 
portions. 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 95 

Pope Urban, in the eleventh century, 
delivered an oration which hypnotized 
the people, causing them to shout, 'It is 
the will of God!" and inaugurated the 
holy Crusades. The pope then absolved 
the people of their sins and sent them 
forth to fight. As the war progressed, 
indulgences were freely granted men 
who entered the conflict in person or 
hired others to go, and finally to all who 
made contributions to the war treasury. 

But it remained for Innocent III. to 
make the indulgence a potent factor in 
the schemes of Roman Catholicism. 
Under his administration, people were 
given indulgences for murdering heretics. 
The confessional-box which he estab- 
lished at once became the instrument 
which made the indulgence a valuable 
asset, and from that day to this the con- 
fessional-box and the indulgence have 
been too closely united to be even men- 
tally divorced. 

The time came when it was dis- 
covered that the indulgences were as 
valuable to the church in times of peace 
as in war. And they were offered to all 



96 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

who would buy. During the construction 
of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, the 
pope exchanged indulgences for contri- 
butions to the building treasury. And 
various other Catholic enterprises have 
been carried on largely by means of 
revenue derived from the sale of indul- 
gences. 

It was the wicked practice of selling 
indulgences that stirred Luther and made 
the Reformation a reality. 

And indulgences are sold to-day for 
the support of confraternities and other 
church policies. I, myself, heard a priest, 
while making announcements prior to his 
sermon, urge the people to buy holy 
water, holy candles, scapulars, and indul- 
gences. 

But what is an indulgence? 

An indulgence is a money-making 
device which enriches the church by de- 
ceiving the people regarding both life 
and death. 

If you have a friend or relative in 
purgatory and buy an indulgence for 
him, it will shorten his residence in that 
warm climate [laughter], and likewise 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 97 

reduce his perspiration and make him 
more comfortable during the period of 
his enforced visit to the place whence 
proceeds the equator. [Laughter.] 

Father Chiniquy relates that when his 
father died, he left an estate, consisting 
of a widow, three small children, some 
debts, and a cow. The cow was the only 
means of support for the family. The 
priest demanded money to lessen the 
deceased man's residence in purgatory. 
But he was informed that there was no 
money. He then offered to adjust that 
little purgatory matter for the cow. 
[Laughter.] Mrs. Chiniquy loved her 
husband enough to let the priest drive 
away the cow, and the priest loved the 
cow enough to drive her away. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

In the "Book of the Scapular," 
familiar to all Catholics, Mary says to 
the faithful who wear the scapular dur- 
ing life: 'T, their glorious mother, on the 
Saturday after their death, will descend 
to purgatory and deliver those whom I 
shall find there, and take them up to the 
holy mountain of eternal life/' 



98 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

I've always had a high regard for 
Mary. But, if the ''Book of the Scapu- 
lar" is her mouthpiece, I'm convinced 
that she doesn't play fair. And I think 
I can convince you of her partiality in 
about two minutes. 

Let us suppose that you and I each 
go to the expense and trouble of wearing 
a scapular all our lives. I die, with mine 
on, a minute after twelve o'clock Sunday 
morning. According to Mary's contract 
with me, I'll have to stay in purgatory a 
whole week! In that time I would be 
roasted. [Laughter.] But you die, with 
your scapular on, a minute before twelve 
Friday night. You have only a minute 
to stay in purgatory ! You would scarce- 
ly be singed. [Laughter.] You would 
not be there long enough to say ''Good 
morning" to the devil [laughter], much 
less to look around the place and renew 
old friendships. [Laughter.] 

If I were a Catholic and wore a 
scapular, I would arrange with my doc- 
tor to delay giving me the fatal dose until 
a minute before twelve Friday night. 
[Laughter.] 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 99 

But the indulgence is a pliable instru- 
ment and respects this life also. 

According to human reasoning, death 
is always in the distant future and pur- 
gatory is still a station beyond. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

A man who had stolen a woman's 
sheep was acquitted by the court. The 
woman said to him: ^This abominable 
court has cleared you. But wait till the 
day of judgment. Then you'll have to 
pay for that sheep." Whereupon the 
man answered: ''Madam, if you credit 
me that long, I'll steal another." 
[Laughter.] 

Indulgences guarantee their pur- 
chasers absolution in this life. In other 
words, an indulgence is a license to sin. 
If you buy an indulgence for sixty or 
ninety days, your confession is taken for 
granted, and you have the right to sin 
during the time specified, just as the 
saloon-keeper pays for his license and 
can sell liquors for a year. 

An indulgence is a kind of fire-insur- 
ance policy, and the Vatican is the com- 
pany that issues it. And, judging from 



100 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

the lives of the popes as described by Pas- 
tor, a celebrated Roman Catholic, some 
of those infallible bachelors must have 
been pretty heavily insured. [Laughter.] 

The second imp which jumps up out 
of the confessional-box has a very long, 
sharp nose; I would call it ^Trying into 
Other People's Business.'' 

All ex-priests tell us (and ex-Catho- 
lics right here in Columbus — people of 
good standing in the community and 
their churches — have told me the same 
thing) that the confessional is em- 
ployed as a medium of information con- 
cerning the home and general private 
life. It means that no Catholic family 
enjoys immunity from the priest's knowl- 
edge of its affairs, if, for any reason, he 
may wish the information. It also means 
that, if you are a Protestant and your 
wife and children are Catholics, what the 
priest doesn't know about your business, 
your politics, your religion, and your 
private life could be put in one corner 
of a gnat's eye. [Laughter.] 

Furthermore, it is averred that the 
homes of Protestants in which there are 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 101 

Catholic domestics are kept under con- 
stant surveillance through the confession- 
al, if the family is prominent or there are 
any other reasons for information. 

The next imp is quick and wiry. He 
turns his head, first one side, then the 
other; his eyes glance at you, then turn 
away; he smiles, and tries to look inno- 
cent and true. For the lack of a more 
euphonious name, we will call him a liar. 
[Laughter.] 

Do you suppose every one who goes 
to confessional divulges every secret of 
the life? I don't. Catholics are human, 
and it is not human nature to open wide 
the heart to other human creatures. 
There are times when even Catholics 
would rather skate around on the ice- 
ponds of perdition [laughter] than re- 
veal certain thoughts and deeds. Ex- 
Catholics — especially women — affirm that 
the priests ask questions which cause the 
cold sweat to stand out in beads on the 
penitent's brow. 

Chiniquy left the following testi- 
mony: '1 do here publicly challenge the 
whole Roman Catholic priesthood to deny 



102 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

that the greater part of their female 
penitents remain a certain period of time 
under the most distressing state of mind. 
I have heard from the Hps of dying 
girls, as well as married women, the 
awful words: 'I am forever lost! All 
my past confessions have been so many 
lies. I have never dared to answer cor- 
rectly the questions of my confessors. 
Shame has sealed my lips and damned 
my soul.' '' 

I shall now introduce the big imp — 
one that is horrible to behold. He has 
hoofs and horns and tusks, a vicious 
countenance, and eyes that hypnotize ; his 
arms are muscular and cruel; his breath 
is as the fumes of a crematorv; his 
raiment is midnight blackness; his name 
is hell. 

It is generally understood that Cath- 
olic men, as a rule, do not give as much 
attention to the confessional as do the 
women. And to this observation all ex- 
priests bear testimony. 

The man, especially if he has means, 
can evade the confessional-box to a con- 
siderable extent or altogether, and at the 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 103 

end of life arrange with the priest to 
look after his purgatorial interests. Or, 
if he happens to drop through the trap- 
door without having made the necessary 
arrangement, his administrators can 
make it for him. 

And money talks in the Catholic 
Church. The sound of its voice delights 
the devil in this world, and its clink is 
music to his imps in the lower regions. 
But, as in this world, its power is com- 
mensurate only with its bulk in the next. 

To put it in figures of speech. If a 
man has only a little money, about all the 
comfort he can hope for in purgatory is 
a pair of sheet-iron slippers to partially 
shield his feet from the excessive heat 
contained in the red-hot streets. [Laugh- 
ter.] If he can make a payment of con- 
siderable size, he is furnished with a pair 
of stilts and a palm-leaf fan. [Laugh- 
ter.] But if he has plenty of cash and 
is willing to plank it down, the priest 
sends the devil a ^Vireless" to make spe- 
cial preparations, for a gentleman who 
has the ^'chink" and doesn't hesitate to 
part with it is on the road. [Laughter.] 



104 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

And when the distinguished guest 
arrives, he's met at the station with a 
Hmousine and whirled away to a fire- 
proof palace, wherein he and the popes, 
Bishop Purcell says are in hell, spend 
their time drinking iced lemonades — 
pretty well spiked — and looking through 
the windows at the poor wretches who 
are roasting in the flames because they 
failed to pay their hotel bills and their 
living relatives are too stingy to put up 
the money. [Applause.] 

In the meantime, priests who have not 
yet purchased their transportation for 
purgatory [laughter] manage to live 
pretty well and save a little money. And 
some of these ''sacrificers for the good 
of the cause" — like Bishop Quigley, of 
Chicago — live in mansions that would 
make a man worth only a million or so 
blush, and enjoy the luxury of stables 
at the rear of their homes — like Bishop 
Quigley's — that would make any dwell- 
ing on East Broad Street* look like thirty 
cents. [Laughter.] 



*East Broad is the wealthy residence street of Columbus. 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 105 

The confessional-box is patronized 
largely by women and girls — especially 
women and girls whose time is not 
monopolized by the frivolities of society, 
and who are made to believe that, al- 
though the canon of the church specifies 
the confessional at least once a year, they 
must whisper into the holy father's ear 
not less than once a week. 

In the two preceding discourses I 
called your attention to the unholy sys- 
tem of Roman Catholicism which, unless 
the law of cause and effect has unfolded 
its wings and forever flown, can do 
nothing other than degrade the priest- 
hood. 

And in the last lecture I emphasized 
the numerous charges preferred against 
the priesthood by history and living, 
responsible people, concerning which 
Romanism is as silent as the grave. 

It has been clearly proven that the 
system has degraded priests, bishops, car- 
dinals, and popes. On page 71 of 
''Romanism a Menace to the Nation," 
Crowley affirms that Leo XIII. was an 
immoral man and that one of his sons — 



106 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Cardinal Satolli — has left his own foot- 
prints in the mud of licentiousness. 
Crowley offers ten thousand dollars for 
proof that his assertions are false. The 
Catholic Church proclaims Leo XIII. as 
the most immaculate of popes. And if he 
was not Cardinal Satolli's father, it is 
passing strange that the church has not 
sufficient pride to disprove the charge. 

If any credence can be placed in his- 
tory — history penned by Catholics them- 
selves — and the testimony of ex-Catholics 
whose veracity in all other matters is 
above reproach, the confessional-box is 
the instrument through which the law of 
cause and effect, in its connection with 
the system, operates. 

The imp of the confessional-box, 
whose constant sin is blacker than 
murder, strikes both ways, frequently 
destroying both confessor and penitent. 

In 1907 three thousand French 
priests, staggering under the weight of 
this unnatural system, are said to have 
signed and sent a petition to Pius X., 
praying him to abolish priestly celibacy. 

Priests confess one to another. 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 107 

Father Chiniquy says: "Those who have 
escaped the snares of the tempter are 
few compared with those who have 
perished. I have heard the confessions 
of more than two hundred priests, and 
to say the truth, as God knows it, I 
must declare that only twenty-one had 
not to weep over the secret sins com- 
mitted through the irresistibly corrupting 
influences of the auricular confession. I 
am now more than seventy-seven years 
old, and in a short time I shall be in my 
grave. I shall have to give an account 
of what I now say. Well, it is in the 
presence of my great Judge, with my 
tomb before my eyes, that I declare to 
the world that very few — yes, very few 
— priests escape from falling into the pit 
of the most horrible moral depravity the 
world has ever known, through the con- 
fessional." 

In addition to the shady theology 
taught in the Catholic seminaries, the 
priests are instructed in the art of lead- 
ing penitents on by authorized questions. 
And many of these questions are of such 
a nature that should I repeat them here 



108 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

to-night, you would rise, en masse, and 
drive me from the building. The ques- 
tions asked penitents are such that no 
woman could repeat them to another of 
her own sex without blushing. Vile men 
could discuss and enjoy them, but men 
of culture would not pollute their lips 
with such obscenity. 

This is not fancy upon my part. 
Should you read Dens, Liguori, Debrey- 
ne, and other Roman instructors who 
prescribe the questions every priest must 
know as he knows the alphabet, and ask 
his penitents, you would wonder how any 
priest could walk the streets without 
wearing a veil. [Applause.] 

Cases are on record of girls running 
home from the confessional and asking 
their parents about things the priests had 
revealed to them — things of which they 
were entirely ignorant and concerning 
which they should have been kept in 
ignorance for years to come. And cases 
are on record of boys declaring that 
priests had told them, in the confessional, 
things they had not even heard from the 
lips of bad companions. It's authentic 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 109 

that boys have said to one another: 
''Let's go to confessional, and let the 
holy father entertain us with religion/' 
[Laughter.] 

'Well, Bridget,'' asked the priest, 
''have you thought about anything bad 
since your last confession?" 

"No, yez Holiness," was the reply, 
''nothing excipt the thing yez told me 
about the last time I was here." [Laugh- 
ter.] 

All down through the centuries, since 
the inauguration of the auricular con- 
fession, from it has gone forth a constant 
stream of corruption. In recent years 
hundreds of cases have come to light in 
which we see a reflection of hell itself. 
And at the present time, whenever a 
life is blighted or a home ruined by the 
Catholic priesthood, nine times in ten, 
the infamy is traceable to the confes- 
sional-box. Crowley, Clark and numer- 
ous other living, responsible men — and 
women, too — declare that the auricular 
confession is debauching young lives by 
the thousand all over our country and 
throughout the world. Yet the Catholic 



no CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Church puts forth no effort to defend 
this institution. 

I shall now make three statements, 
and my only regret is that the limitations 
of our language prohibit the emphasis 
with which I should like to make them. 

1. If the Methodist, Baptist, or any 
other Protestant church, had a confes- 
sional, whose language could not be 
printed in English, concerning which 
there was one-half the suspicion and con- 
nected with which there was one-third 
the scandal that attach to the Catholic 
confessional, the American people would 
raise a howl that would frighten the 
inhabitants of Mars out of their wits. 
[Applause.] Our lawmakers would no 
longer say they could not interfere with 
religious liberty, and they would smash 
that confessional-box into smithereens. 
[Applause.] 

2. I challenge statistics to prove 
that Mormonism has corrupted the 
morals of our country anything like as 
much as has the Catholic confessional. 
Yet, a few years ago, the Federal Gov- 
ernment forgot its "religious liberty 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 111 

policy" long enough to open wide its 
indignant hand and slap Mormonism in 
the face so hard that the Latter-day 
Saints ran back to Salt Lake City, pray- 
ing: ''O shades of Joseph Smith and 
Brigham Young! Come back and protect 
us from this terrible persecution!" [Ap- 
plause. ] 

3. And I unhesitatingly assert that 
the auricular confession, which pours 
into the minds of young people its un- 
printable questions, wrecks homes, and 
is accused of multiplied dark and monster 
crimes by reputable men who declare 
they have the evidence, but are not called 
upon to produce it, and which has been 
repeatedly condemned in the persons of 
offending priests by the courts of our 
land, ought to be prohibited by law. 
[Prolonged applause.] 

Last Sunday night I stated that the 
Catholic press calls antipapal magazines 
'Vile sheets." I further stated that I 
agreed with the Catholic verdict, and 
that to-night I would tell you why. I 
shall now redeem that promise. Anti- 
papal journals are sharp knives that are 



112 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

run, up to the hilt, into the side of 
Romanism every month and week in the 
year. And if only the auricular confes- 
sion were under consideration, these 
blades are necessarily vile, because they 
are being constantly stuck into the 
filthiest system over which the angels 
have wept and the devil has laughed. 
[Applause.] 

The Protestant magazine, the Menace, 
and other strictly antipapal journals, to- 
gether with a number of independent 
religious papers that contain antipapal 
departments — the Christian Standard^ of 
Cincinnati being second to none — con- 
stitute a great blade which is constantly 
getting longer and sharper each week. 
This blade is constantly pushed into the 
side of Rome and turned, and the old 
lady, in a voice that can be heard the 
world around, is daily shrieking, ^'Ouch! 
that hurts V [Applause. ] 

The independent press, a knife that 



*The Christian Standard, published from Eighth, Ninth and 
Cutter Streets, Cincinnati, O., each week contains a page, ably 
edited, devoted to a discussion of the problems thrust upon the 
attention of the church and the public by the false pretensions 
and misdeeds of Roman Catholicism. 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 113 

reaches across oceans and continents, and 
whose length is measured only by the 
extent of civilization, is on the job, slash- 
ing Romanism from head to foot every 
day in the year and every hour in the 
day. [Applause.] It is cutting the cur- 
tains from around the confessional-box 
and revealing the most hideous monster 
of the nefarious system, which for cen- 
turies has degraded and damned women 
and children in the name of religion. 
[Applause.] And the task of revelation, 
from combined sources, will be continued 
until either Romanism abolishes the con- 
fessional-box and strangles the demon 
which debauches priests and penitents, 
or the governments of the world rise up 
in their indignation and integrity and 
sweep the entire system into perdition. 
[Applause.] 

And still another imp jumps up. 
[Laughter.] Its name will appear in the 
next statement I shall make. 

The best priest in the world is a sin- 
ful man — just like other men. And 
when he assumes the prerogative of de- 
ciding the gravity of another's sin and 



114 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

granting or withholding absolution — a 
prerogative which belongs only to God 
— the assumption is the most blatant 
blasphemy known to man. [Applause.] 

Furthermore, when a priest, whose 
body is saturated with rum — in the light 
of the Scriptural statement, ''No drunk- 
ard shall enter the kingdom of heaven" 
— and whose heart and life are steeped 
in the lowest iniquity to which the 
outcast can stoop, sits in God's stead to 
hear and pass upon the sins of which 
the purest of women and innocent chil- 
dren feel guilty, it's an insult to human 
intelligence, a travesty upon religion, and 
an outrage upon high Heaven. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

The arrogance of the confessional 
alone condemns Roman Catholicism 
before the judgment-bar of unbiased 
reason. [ Applause. ] 

After his confession, an Irishman is 
said to have engaged his priest in the 
following conversation : 

"Father, does yez iver go to confis- 



sion r 



?'' 



Certainly, Patrick. Priests, bishops, 



THE AURICULAR CONFESSION 115 

cardinals, and popes all go to confession. 
The priest confesses to his bishop, the 
bishop to a cardinal, the cardinal to the 
pope, and the pope to God." 

'Ts thot so? And what might be the 
cost?" 

"The priest pays the bishop twenty- 
five dollars, the bishop pays the cardinal 
fifty dollars, and the cardinal pays the 
pope one hundred dollars." 

''Is thot so? It appears to git higher 
the fither up yez go! And what does 
the pope pay God, yez riverence?" 

''Why, the pope gets his confession 
free." 

"Is thot so? If thofs the case, I 
think Oi'll confiss to God meself after 
this." [Laughter.] 

The confessional is about the only 
feature of Romanism that is not directly 
connected with the almighty dollar; but 
indirectly it is a money-making institu- 
tion, for it keeps the people in line with 
the sale of indulgences, scapulars, holy 
water, etc. 

Eliminating the direct confessional 
fee, which is not charged, the story intro- 



116 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

duces my third proposition — God is the 
only logical and Scriptural confessor to 
whom penitents should go. 

The human heart yearns for the 
touch of a power higher than its own. 
Common sense declares that this power is 
not lodged in the breast of man or any 
position he may create. [Applause.] 

The Scriptures teach that man is 
responsible to God, and to him alone. 
The command, ''Confess your faults one 
to another,'' has reference to man's rela- 
tion to man and not his relation to God. 

God alone has power to forgive sins. 
Nor has he ever delegated this power 
to any other, save his only begotten Son. 
Hence, any man who arrogates unto him- 
self the prerogative of sitting in God's 
or Christ's stead is the most brazen blas- 
phemer on earth. [Applause.] 

And all, however conscientious they 
may be, who bow in the confessional-box, 
bend the knee of contrition to the evil 
spirit that was thrown out of heaven 
and fell ''as lightning" to the earth — 
whom, not knowing what else to name 
him, we call the devil. [Applause.] 



V. 

ROME'S BLOODY HANDS. 
(Rev. 17:6.) 

An address only an hour in length, 
on any phase of Roman Catholicism, is 
necessarily at a great disadvantage, be- 
cause the time is too limited to do more 
than pull out the stopper and let the audi- 
ence have a whiff of what is contained 
in the tremendous jug. [Laughter.] 
But even a whiff is like hartshorn in 
the nose. [Laughter.] It nearly blows 
the top of one's head off [laughter], 
throws the brain into a whirl, and makes 
the heart sick. 

In the love-letter"^ I read you last 

*0n the preceding Sunday evening Mr. Rutledge read a 
scathing letter he had received from Theo. Wolfram, a Catholic 
and a well-known business man of Columbus. The letter con- 
tained such epithets as ''blatherskite" and "skunk," and such 
compliments as **when that venomous froth dripped from your 
mouth," ''your horrible, putredinous breath," "you have no con- 
science," "you are a freak," "you seem to have cultivated your 
mind at the expense of your heart," and "under an X-ray, it 
[your heart] will show that it is like a last year's potato." The 
reading of the letter was a cause of much merriment for the 
audience. 

117 



118 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Sunday night [laughter] the author 
accused me of poisoning the minds of the 
people. I agree with him that the exhi- 
bition of Roman Catholicism is not the 
best tonic in the world for public morals. 
[Applause.] But there are times when 
it is necessary to show the public even 
the worst side of life. [Applause.] 

If I am poisoning the minds of the 
people when I simply remove the stopper 
for a short time, what are the Catholic 
seminaries doing to the priesthood when 
they pour the obscene contents of this 
jug all over the young theologues? 
[Laughter.] And what are the priests 
doing in the confessional-box when they 
begin with children at the early age of 
nine or ten years — first letting them 
smell, then compelling them to drink 
from this jug — and when they force this 
poison into the minds of girls and women 
by the hundred thousand every year? 
[Applause.] 

Tom Watson published a little of this 
poison in his magazine, the cry went 
forth, ''That's unprintable and therefore 
unlawful!'' and he was haled into court. 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 119 

An English publisher was imprisoned 
for printing the language priests are 
taught in the seminaries and compelled 
to employ in the confessional-box. 

No priest would state under oath that 
the works of Dens, Kenrick, Debreyne, 
Buchard, Liguori, and Scavani could be 
given to the public in English book or 
newspaper. For priests know these 
works could be produced in court, and 
they would stand convicted of perjury. 

Roman Catholicism slays morals, 
blasts lives, and wrecks homes in every 
land. But we shall now say farewell to 
this nauseating side of the subject, and 
look, briefly as possible, on another side, 
which, on the surface, seems worse, but 
in reality is not as bad. 

I would rather see my daughter 
burned alive or carved to pieces than 
have her pass through the experience 
which, according to Rome's own histori- 
ans, living witnesses, and court records, 
has been the fate of untold thousands as 
a direct result of Catholic theology. 
[Applause.] 

During the three preceding lectures, 



120 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

while I have held the stopper, you have 
looked at the jug and held your noses. 
[Laughter.] To-night you will have to 
hold your nerves. If you are inclined to 
faint at the sight of blood, I would advise 
you to either retire now or get your 
smelling-salts ready. [Laughter.] And 
if you are in the habit of pulling off long 
fainting spells, perhaps you had better 
make your will. [Laughter.] 

Whether or not my text comprehends 
more than I shall emphasize in this dis- 
course, I'm not prepared to say. But I 
will say that it applies to Romanism more 
than to anything else with which the 
Christian religion has been connected, 
and that it convicts the Catholic Church 
before the tribunal of human intelli- 
gence. 

For if the Roman Church has not 
been "drunken with the blood of the 
saints,'^ history is a lie and it's folly to 
believe anything we read concerning the 
past. [Applause.] 

The subject on which Fm to speak, 
this evening, is not like the proverbial 
needle in the haystack. It is like the 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 121 

straws that compose the stack, so multi- 
pHed are the atrocities it presents. The 
difficulty, therefore, is not the task of 
finding something to say, but that of 
deciding just where to reach in and pull 
out a bunch of hair-raising facts. 

I could tell you about the murders 
connected with the Vatican, as a result 
of jealousy, ambition, and expecially the 
atmosphere of suspicion which has al- 
ways been and is still breathed by popes, 
cardinals, guards, domestics, and all who 
have been and are associated with that 
citadel of iniquity. [Applause.] And I 
could punctuate the discourse with a 
reference to the mysterious death of 
Cardinal Rampolla, which occurred only 
a few weeks ago. Rampolla had Papal 
ambitions, and, like others around whose 
head the infallible bee has buzzed, he, 
abruptly and under circumstances that 
were questionable, boarded the limited 
express for purgatory. [Laughter.] 
That is not a sacrilegious statement. 
The Catholic Church teaches that the 
best of her members go to purgatory. 
Rampolla's will, dated April 13, 1889, 



122 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

which has come to light, was published 
in last week's issue of the Western 
Watchman. And in that will he made 
a large bequest to his own soul, specify- 
ing that immediately after his death two 
hundred masses should begin, at five 
francs a mass, to get him out of pur- 
gatory. Nor is my reference to his 
recent decease rash. The Associated 
Press, which, as I shall prove next Sun- 
day night, is controlled by the Catholic 
Church and is therefore conservative re- 
garding all Romish news, recently ac- 
quainted the public with the fact that 
Rampolla's powerful friends had threat- 
ened to have his body exhumed and his 
stomach searched for poison. This will 
afiford you an idea of the confidence the 
holy men in and about the Vatican repose 
in one another in the good year 1914, 
[Applause.] 

I could devote the time to a discus- 
sion of wholesale infanticide, submitting 
evidence in support of the charge that 
thousands of children have been born 
and buried behind stone walls. 

Or I could talk for hours upon con- 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS IZi 

vent horrors. I could specify cases like 
that of Barbara Ubryk, who, as court 
records in England are reported to show, 
was confined in a living tomb — eight feet 
long and six feet wide — for twenty-one 
years. According to the published story 
in booklet form by L. J. King, she was 
never given water wath which to bathe. 
She was kept half starved, and periodic- 
ally she was beaten. Her garments 
rotted away, and during a majority of 
those years she had only nature's raiment 
in the heat of summer and the cold of 
winter. The hair fell from her head, 
her nails became as bird's claws, vermin 
ate her body, which was reduced to 
a skeleton, and she nearly lost her 
reason. And she was thus punished by 
the Mother Superior because, as a beau- 
tiful girl, she is alleged to have stubborn- 
ly withstood the infamous advances of 
her father confessor. The indignant 
Catholics, themselves, it is asserted, tried 
to demolish the convent. And the sleek, 
well-groomed priest, who during all these 
twenty-one years enjoyed the confidence 
of his bishop and the best Catholic people, 



124 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

is said to have committed suicide to 
escape the verdict of the court. 

And I could dwell upon numerous 
other outrages, some of which have 
touched the life of our own country in 
our own day. 

But I shall pass these by and give the 
subject a more general survey. 

From the viewpoint of Romanism, 
there is only one sin too black to be for- 
given — the sin of heresy. 

Priests may drink until they are 
drunk — and I've seen them do it. They 
may steal — and Crowley affirms that they 
do. They may ruin women and children 
by the thousand — and scores of living 
men and women prefer these charges 
and claim they have the evidence, which 
is never called for. And the only punish- 
ment inflicted upon them is a transfer 
to another parish. But let a priest or 
layman renounce the doctrines and tra- 
ditions of the Catholic Church, and he at 
once becomes such a fiend in human 
form that his family and friends pro- 
nounce him dead, the saints are called 
upon to curse him, and he is branded 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 125 

the vilest sinner on earth and the arch- 
enemy of Heaven. 

For the sin of heresy, in past cen- 
turies, people were put to death by every 
cruel method the devil could invent, and 
at the instigation of ''infallible" popes 
and ''holy'' bishops and cardinals whose 
lives, according to Catholic historians, 
were lurid with the most horrible licen- 
tiousness the world has ever known. 

Time will not permit me to begin at 
its source and follow this river of blood 
as it flows and widens. Hence, I can 
only dip into it here and there, and call 
your attention to its width, depth, and 
turbulent current. 

Admiral Coligny was cruelly mur- 
dered in 1572. His head was cut off, 
embalmed, and given to Catherine de 
Medici, who sent it as a welcome present 
to the pope. 

Thomas Cranmer was burned at the 
stake in 1556. 

Ridley and Latimer were roasted 
alive, Oct. 16, 1555. 

In 1417, John Oldcastle was tied on a 
cart and paraded through the city to the 



126 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

place of execution. He was then sus- 
pended with chains and tortured to death 
by a slow fire. 

John Huss was fed to the flames in 
1414. 

And I could continue, indefinitely, 
naming great, scholarly, godly men who 
have suffered death, in most excruciating 
forms, because they declined to acknowl- 
edge the supremacy of the pope. 

Thus far, I have had you simply 
glance at the retail end of heresy — exter- 
mination. I shall now call your attention 
to the wholesale part of the wicked busi- 
ness. 

But, before doing so, I wish to pick 
up and tie a loose thread that is hanging 
by one end. 

Now and then a silly priest, who 
hasn't the power of analysis required of 
a dog-catcher [laughter], ofifers the 
apology that the church is not guilty of 
the crimes history records, and insists 
that they were committed by the govern- 
ments. 

I believe in fair play. Therefore, Tm 
willing to investigate this apology. And 



ROME^S BLOODY HANDS 127 

if the Catholic Church is innocent of the 
crimes she is alleged to have committed, 
I, for one, stand ready to break my gun, 
put on a scapular, and go to confession 
[laughter] ; though I fear the penance I 
would have to do for delivering these 
lectures would keep me busy for at least 
a day or so. [Laughter.] 

Let us suppose that I have a magis- 
trate under my absolute control, and that 
I have hitherto had a law enacted which 
declares that all people must believe as I 
do — under penalty of death. I single out 
a man, prefer and sustain the charge that 
he doesn^t believe as I do, and he is exe- 
cuted. And when you reprimand me for 
having done such a horrible thing, I roll 
my eyes to heaven, look holy, and say: 
''Run along. I didn't do it. The magis- 
trate is the bad man.'' [Applause.] 

If there's a man here to-night so lim- 
ited in gray matter that he can not see 
the point, and he'll permit the favor, I'll 
go to the butcher's to-morrow, buy some 
calf brains, and shovel them into his head 
with a spoon. [Laughter.] 

However, to illustrate the point so the 



128 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

children present may grasp it, Til refer 
to a couple of historic examples. 

Once upon a time there was a man by 
the name of Henry IV. History says he 
was Emperor of Germany, and one day 
he made the mistake of actually thinking 
he was the emperor. He decided that 
Pope Gregory VH. should attend to his 
own affairs and let the business of the 
German Government alone. But, unfor- 
tunately for him, the pope decided other- 
wise. The result was that the emperor 
made a pilgrimage to the pope's house in 
midwinter, 1077. He knocked. But the 
pope looked through the window, saw 
who was there, and said: 'Tm busy just 
now. Take off your shoes and all your 
clothes except your shirt, and stand out- 
side till I call you.'' The emperor re- 
moved his clothing and stood at the door 
three long days. And when he was 
nearly starved and frozen, he was invited 
in to ^^eat a bite," get warm, and talk 
things over. The conversation that day, 
somewhat one-sided, was about as fol- 
lows: ''Now, Henry, if you'll kiss my toe 
[laughter], and promise to be good, you 



ROME^S BLOODY HANDS 129 

may run along back home and play that 
you are emperor. But don't ever make 
the mistake again of forgetting that Tm 
the boss/' [Laughter.] 

And once upon another time there 
was a man at Toulouse, France, whose 
name was Count Raimond (VI.). He 
was the chief magistrate of a province 
wherein there were a number of heretics, 
and the decree had been issued that his 
heretics should pay the penalty of their 
folly. This man also felt well enough 
one morning to eat a good breakfast, 
after which he placed his thumbs in his 
vest-bands, made a turn or two, drew in 
a deep breath, and concluded that he was 
somebody. He thought of the fatal de- 
cree, and, throwing back his shoulders, 
said out loud: ^T don't believe in killing 
heretics, and I think Til let mine live." 

Pope Innocent III. overheard this 
insolent soliloquy. Whereupon he wrote 
a letter to Philip Augustus, the king. 
And, to make a long story short, on the 
18th of June, 1209, the magistrate con- 
cluded that he would take a day off and 
have a little fun. He (voluntarily, of 



130 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

course!) laid his hand on the '^conse- 
crated host" and ''reUcs of the saints/' 
and took a solemn oath that he would 
obey the pope during the remainder of 
his life [laughter], and that he would 
pursue heretics with sword and fire until 
they were totally exterminated. This 
oath must have been delightful! 

Then some of the church officials told 
him it would be in keeping with the 
pleasant occasion of his visit in their 
midst for him to ride a goat — just to help 
him remember his oath. [Laughter.] 
You men have ridden goats in your 
lodges. [Laughter.] But you never rode 
one like that Catholic goat the French 
magistrate rode. [Laughter.] They told 
him to remove all his garments to keep 
them from being torn when the goat 
kicked up. [Laughter.] A halter was 
thrown about his neck, he was led seven 
times around a grave in the holy church 
edifice, then, before the altar, his back 
was beaten with a bundle of rods until 
it looked like a beefsteak cut with a saw. 
[Laughter.] Then they went home to 
supper, light-hearted, and singing: 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 131 

" 'Tis religion that can give 
Sweetest pleasures while we live/' 

[Laughter.] 
All except the magistrate. He sang: 

"Amazing Rome! Dismiss the sound! 
That thrashed a count like me! 
I once was free, but now am bound; 
Was blind, but now I see!'' 

[Laughter.] 

The pope had a never- failing method 
of opening the eyes of every king, em- 
peror, and subordinate official who pre- 
sumed to withstand the decrees of the 
church or to say his soul was his own. 
[Applause.] 

When a priest in yonder cathedral 
absolves a penitent, Romanism teaches 
that the church does it. And just as the 
Roman Church to-day operates her spir- 
itual affairs through the priests she dom- 
inates, the church of the world's midnight 
operated her persecutions through the 
government officials she controlled. 

Madam Rome, your apology has been 
heard; but, after due consideration, we 
have decided not to accept it. [Ap- 
plause.] 



132 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

I shall cut out the Crusades, whose 
object was the conquest of the Holy 
Land, and admit Rome's argument that 
they were justifiable; though it's difficult 
to square the tactics of that conflict with 
the standards of war that were observed 
even centuries prior to the time of Peter 
the Hermit. 

Back as far as the twelfth century, 
there was a class of people known as 
Cathari, or Puritans. Their only sin was 
that of recognizing Christ, instead of the 
pope, as Head of the church. Yet they 
were universally persecuted. 

In 1159 a company of these plain, 
God-fearing folk — thirty in number — ap- 
peared in England. They banded them- 
selves together in the capacity of a 
congregation, and sought only the liberty 
of conscience. But this liberty was denied 
them, and likewise was their right to live. 
They were each branded on the forehead 
with a red-hot iron, deprived of their 
raiment, whipped through the streets of 
Oxford, and turned loose in the open 
fields, where, in the depth of winter, they 
were compelled to remain until they all 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 133 

perished. This is only an example of the 
punishment inflicted upon these good 
people wherever they were found. 

The Albigenses, a people who declined 
to acknowledge the pope as Christ's vicar 
on earth, were special objects of Papal 
enmity. 

Pope Innocent III., who hated these 
people with all the venom of his depraved 
soul, decided to rid the earth of their 
presence, and put his decision into imme- 
diate bloody action. 

The city of Beziers, in France, was 
besieged in 1209. The Knights asked the 
pope's legate how to distinguish the 
Catholics from the heretics. The legate 
replied: ''Kill them all; the Lord will 
know those that are his." When the 
gates were entered, women and children 
fled to the churches, thinking that within 
the sacred walls mercy might be shown 
them. But Romanism has never learned 
the meaning of ''mercy." The victims 
were carved to pieces, and their blood 
drenched the altars and flowed out into 
the streets. Then the dripping blade of 
carnage was thrust through every remain- 



134 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

ing man, woman, and child in the city. 

In 1210 men and women, numbering 
140, were roasted alive on a great pile 
of lumber in the castle of Menerbe. 

In 1211 Lavaur was besieged. The 
refugees were cut to pieces and burned, 
and the lady of the castle was buried 
alive. And during this fiendish perform- 
ance, the bishop, the abbot of Cordieu, 
and all the priests clothed in pontifical 
habits, rolled their hypocritical eyes 
heavenward and sang, ''Veni, Creator/' 
Then, proceeding to the castle of Cas- 
soro, the fiends seized and tortured about 
sixty other victims to death. 

But time will not permit a lengthy, 
detailed account of these wholesale mur- 
ders. As we pursue history, we find the 
Roman Church, even in this early period, 
continuously slaking her thirst with the 
blood of saints. Petrus Vallensis, the 
monkish historian, who was present on 
various of these hell-born and devil-led 
occasions, testifies that the pilgrims seized 
the heretics and tortured them with infi- 
nite joy. 

Finally, in 1215, Pope Innocent III. 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 135 

had his infamous council issue a sweeping 
decree against heretics, and the grim 
reaper went marching on, red-handed and 
remorselessly, across the countries and 
down through the centuries. 

I haven't the time to portray the 
wicked Innocents and Gregories, Pope 
Julius — the ^^man of blood" — and numer- 
ous other fiends incarnate, whose hypo- 
critical, scarlet lives are recorded in gen- 
eral history, and whose names are to-day 
^^sainted'' by the Catholic Church and 
recognized as open gates of pearl through 
which supplications may be addressed to 
the Eternal Throne. 

Time will not permit an extended 
perusal of Bloody Mary's five-year reign 
of terror, during which the pope wielded 
the scepter and 282 persons were put to 
death. 

Nor can I dwell upon the continued 
slaughter of the Albigenses and Walden- 
ses, the Inquisition in Spain and France, 
and the bloody application of the Later an 
decree in every land wherein circum- 
stances placed heretics at the mercy of 
Catholics. 



136 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

But for a few moments we will look 
at Paris on the night of Aug. 24, 1572. 

Beginning with the murder of Colig- 
ny, the slaughter raged until more than 
five thousand people lay mangled and 
dead, and the streets were like scarlet 
rivers. The massacre extended to Meaux, 
Troyes, Orleans, Nevers, Lyons, Tou- 
louse, Bordeaux, Rouen, and other local- 
ities, and fully twenty-five thousand were 
added to the list of carnage. And this 
bloody badge swings from the lapel of 
St. Bartholomew's Day! 

Was the church particeps criminisf 
Let history answer. After having gone 
to mass and thanking God for the victory, 
the king sent a messenger to the pope 
with the joyful news. Did the pope rend 
his garments, put on sackcloth, cover his 
head with ashes, and decree that the 
wicked king should be drawn and quar- 
tered? Not much! The pope and cardi- 
nals repaired to the Church of St. Louis, 
where they returned thanks to God for 
this wholesale slaughter of heretics. Te 
Deum was sung, and cannon fired the 
glad announcement to the neighborhoods 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 137 

around. But this was not enough to 
satisfy the hilarious pope. He had a 
medal struck, on one side of which 
was inscribed ''Hugonotorum Strages 
[slaughter of the Huguenots] 1572," and 
on the other side, his own name and title. 

O thou Gregory XHI. ! Thou didst 
wear the artificial robes of righteousness 
and proclaim thyself the incarnate 
Christ! And thou art yet called ''saint" 
by the millions who acknowledge thee as 
having been an embodiment of holiness 
and infallibility! But thy heart was 
filled with wriggling, striking, poisonous 
vipers, thy tongue was tipped with blas- 
phemy, and thy hands were gleefully 
plunged into a warm, quivering lake of 
innocent blood ! [Applause.] 

Had the Roman Church put her vic- 
tims to death decently, and with as little 
pain as possible, she would have stood out 
in bold relief, down to the end of time, 
as a monster whose iniquities could not 
have been described. 

But, not content with what the phrase 
''extermination by death" implies, she 
has not onlv thirsted for human blood, 



138 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

but her ears have itched to hear the 
groans of pain and her eyes have tingled 
to feast themselves upon the shrinking 
flesh and writhing forms of men, women, 
and children in extreme torture. The 
man-eating tiger thirsts for blood. But 
no one has ever accused that animal of 
prolonging a victim's life just to glory in 
his misery. This tiger, as an illustra- 
tion of Roman Catholicism, is therefore 
too mild. And I, hereby, dismiss him, 
with an apology for having associated 
his name with that of a system of murder 
whose cruelty could not be improved 
upon in hell. [Applause.] 

Look upon the dungeons in which 
heretics were starved, and eaten by ver- 
min; look upon the graves in which they 
were buried alive; look upon the spiked 
iron virgin, in which they were squeezed 
and their bodies pierced; look upon the 
stake and the slow fire, which roasted 
them alive; look upon the Inquisition 
chambers, in which they were tortured 
with racks and pulleys and needles and 
knives and fire! People were hurled 
from precipices, dropped into wells, hung 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 139 

on hooks, and put to death by every 
other cruel method depraved ingenuity 
could devise. 

But even blood and physical pain did 
not satisfy Rome's desire for fiendish 
pleasure. Hence the infliction of mental 
torture by methods the public mention of 
a majority of which is prohibited by the 
rules of propriety. I shall, therefore, 
refer you to only one case — described 
by Dowling. 

Nothing is so tender and heavenly 
as a mother's love for the babe at her 
breast. The Roman Church discovered 
the depth and sensitiveness of this holy 
affection, and even subjected it to torture 
— the instances in which babes have been 
snatched from their mothers' arms and 
cruelly put to death being legion. 

The historian takes us back to Jan. 
23, 1685, and points out a case of per- 
secution, the infamy of which surpasses 
the most blood-curdling accounts of the 
Inquisition chambers. A mother is 
chained in such a position that she can 
not help looking through a partition into 
an adjoining rom, wherein her little babe 



140 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

has been mercilessly flung upon the floor. 
The persecutors withdraw and let time 
perform its ghastly task. The sun goes 
down, but a candle burns that the veil of 
darkness may not shield the maternal 
eyes from the heart-breaking spectacle. 
The long night passes and another day 
dawns to drag and wane. The babe 
hungers and suffers and cries. Its moans 
finally cease, but it continues to gasp 
and its flesh quivers until the weeping 
angel reaches down and receives the little 
spirit. And the mother has been so near 
— ^yet so far; her heart has broken a 
thousand times; the tears have trickled 
over her burning cheeks until the tear- 
glands have become inactive and her eyes 
are dry and glassy; she has been com- 
pelled to hear and witness it all. [Audi- 
ence wept.] 

Don't tell me God is in a system in 
which there is no humanity! If I had 
to believe Roman Catholicism was or- 
dained of God, or that he is, in anywise, 
connected with it, Td turn atheist, I 
would throw away my Bible [drops 
Bible to the floor] and say to the Psalm- 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 141 

ist: ''You may call me a fool, if you 
wish. But I do not believe a word in 
that book !'' [Applause.] 

''But when the world's midnight 
passed, the persecuting spirit of Roman- 
ism passed with it,'' we are sometimes 
assured. Let's examine this proposition. 

Modern Roman Catholicism, instead 
of anathematizing the human fiends of 
ancient Roman Catholicism, canonizes 
these monsters and thereby indorses their 
black lives and hellish deeds. 

Civilization has advanced until 
Romanism no longer has the sword and 
torture-rack in her hands. But Roman- 
ism has not advanced. As a system it 
is still roaming the wilds of medieval cen- 
turies. [Applause.] It is behind the 
times scientifically and religiously; and 
while it is up to date and a little beyond 
in political wire-pulling, it is four cen- 
turies out of date in its political ideals. 
[Applause.] 

The system is behind its people in 
many respects, and this is a hopeful sign. 
By persuasion, threats, and penance, 
Rome tries to compel her people to pat- 



142 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

ronize her own schools. But, in prac- 
tically every community, many Catholics 
send their children to the public schools 
for no other reason than that Rome's 
own schools are out of date. This rea- 
son has been repeatedly assigned by Cath- 
olics themselves. It hasn't been a week 
since a Catholic told an officer of this 
church that he quit sending his children 
to the parochial school because he had 
discovered that they were learning noth- 
ing that would be of service in adult life. 
[Applause.] 

Rome's decrees that heretics must be 
exterminated have never been rescinded. 

I'm informed that in text-books, still 
taught in Catholic seminaries, it is posi- 
tively stated that ''obstinate heretics 
should be exterminated," and that ''if by 
declaring our religion we cause some dis- 
turbance and deaths, it is to the glory of 
God." 

And added to all this, the encyclicals 
of all the popes emphasize the infallibility 
of the church. 

Can infallibility make mistakes, dis- 
cover them, repent, and change ? Roman- 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 143 

ism teaches that it does not and can not. 
Is logic logic? Or is it only moonshine? 
[Applause.] 

Here and there, in countries dom- 
inated by Romanism, cases of persecution 
came to light in the nineteenth century. 

I refer you to one of comparatively 
recent date. Hardesty, in ''Why are We 
Protestants?" states that in 1892— and I 
fancy a few of you were living then 
[laughter] — Felix Martinez was put to 
death in San Lorenzo because the Jesuits 
discovered that he was doing the church 
in that locality an injury by inducing 
his friends to read the Bible. 

And it is further asserted in this 
book that, about that time, a Cacholic 
paper in New York edified the morals 
of its readers with the following ''up- 
to-date" editorial: ^'Lynch law is a bar- 
barous remedy. But lynch law is not 
confined to Mexico. And if it ever could 
be justifiable, it is when, in a country 
devoted to the Catholic faith, a blas- 
pheming infidel, having become interested 
in the Bible, proceeds to interest his 
neighbors." 



144 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

rm a Southern man. And, like all ^ 
other Southern men at the present time, 
I would die for the ^'Stars and Stripes/' 
[Applause.] But had I discovered 
America about twenty years before the 
Civil War, I think I should have been 
in that rumpus. [Laughter.] And, in 
Mark Twain's language, ''there would 
probably have been trouble.'' [Laugh- 
ter.] 

Now let me refresh your memory a 
little regarding American history. Jef- 
ferson Davis' sister was the superioress 
of a convent in Bardstown, Ky. 

The first gun at Fort Sumpter was 
fired by a Roman Catholic. 

And Pope Pius IX. wrote President 
Davis a letter containing consolation and 
courage. He was the only European 
potentate who recognized the Confeder- 
acy. Was it because he loved Davis and 
the Southern people? Nonsense. So far 
as Davis and the Southern people were 
concerned, they were no more to him 
than was African slavery, which was 
''the goat" of that terrible war. I say 
^'the goat" because had the situation not 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 145 

been manipulated by schemers — both 
North and South and abroad — the 
slavery question would have settled it- 
self. [Applause.] The men who got up 
the war never smelt smoke — except the 
smoke of their cigars. [Laughter.] 

The fact that the pope blessed the 
Confederacy instead of the Union proves 
that he believed and hoped that the 
South would be victorious. And it is 
quite evident, to my mind, that he was 
planning a long scheme — that of getting 
the Papal hooks in at the very beginning 
of the new government, filling the South 
with his emissaries, and making the Con- 
federate States of America a Catholic 
nation. Had this been the result, with 
the aid of Mexico and the Catholic con- 
stituency of Canada, together with Cath- 
olic prestige in the United States, the 
project of making all America Catholic 
would have looked sanguine. The fact 
that Catholics fought on both sides does 
not pierce my argument. For we have 
already seen, in the destruction of 
Beziers, that Romanism does not hesi- 
tate to sacrifice its own blood when the 

10 



146 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

interests of the church are at stake. 
[Applause.] 

Perhaps some of you think I've 
drawn on extreme fancy. TU prove 
that my argument is not so far removed, 
as you might think, from that of a man 
whose conclusions upon subjects pertain- 
ing to the Civil War are highly respected 
in this country. Abraham Lincoln said: 
''This war would never have been pos- 
sible without the sinister influence of the 
Jesuits. We owe it to popery that we 
now see our land reddened with the 
blood of her noblest sons. If the people 
knew the whole truth, this war would 
turn into a religious war. New projects 
of assassination are detected almost every 
day. The New York riots were evidently 
a Romish plot. We have proof in our 
hands that they were the work of Bishop 
Hughes." [Applause. ] 

And there's a sequel to this line of 
argument. So hostile was Lincoln to- 
ward the Catholic Church that many 
papers said he was an ex-Catholic. 
Father Chiniquy, a close personal friend 
of the President, said to him, 'That 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 147 

report is your sentence of death." Lin- 
coln himself prophesied that he would 
die at the hands of an assassin and that 
his death would be inspired by Jesuits. 

Now, I wish you to look at a chain 
I shall jingle before your eyes. 

John Wilkes Booth was a Catholic. 

Mrs. Surratt, in whose house the 
murder was planned, was a Catholic, and 
John H. Surratt was a Catholic. 

Dr. Mudd, who set Booth's leg, was 
a Catholic. 

Garrett, in whose barn Booth took 
refuge, was a Catholic. 

Lloyd, who kept the carbine Booth 
wanted for protection, was a Catholic. 

General Baker, the detective, said, ''All 
the conspirators were Roman Catholics.'' 

The death of Lincoln was announced 
by Catholics at St. Joseph, Minn., forty 
miles from the nearest railroad station, 
several hours before it occurred. 

Father Chiniquy, Col. Edwin A. Sher- 
man, and General Harris, after investi- 
gating the murder, affirmed that Rome 
was the instigator of Lincoln's assassina- 
tion. 



148 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

For a verification of this astounding 
evidence, I refer you to Brandt's 
''America or Rome," Chiniquy's works, 
and other books that enjoy an extensive 
circulation, not one of which Rome dares 
assail historically. [Applause.] 

Is the old-time spirit of Romanism 
dead or asleep? Or is it still alive and 
awake, but held in subjection by govern- 
ments and the humane spirit of our 
age? 

On page 169 of ''Romanism a Menace 
to the Nation,'' the Western Watchman, 
of St. Louis, edited by D. S. Phelan, is 
quoted as follows from the issue of 
Dec. 24, 1908: "Protestants were per- 
secuted in France and Spain with the 
full approval of the church authorities. 
The church has persecuted. Only a tyro 
in church history will deny that. We 
have always defended the persecution of 
the Huguenots and the Spanish Inquisi- 
tion. When she thinks it good to use 
physical force, she will use it. But will 
the Catholic Church give bond that she 
will not persecute at all? Will she guar- 
antee absolute freedom and equality of 



ROME'S BLOODY HANDS 149 

all churches and faiths? The Catholic 
Church gives no bonds for her good 
behavior/' 

Inasmuch as the editor of one of your 
greatest papers declares that the Catholic 
Church stands ready to persecute Prot- 
estants to-day, as she did in centuries 
gone by, you Catholics should not feel 
bitter toward me for suggesting that 
your system of religion— if it may be 
termed a religious system — has not 
changed, but is simply held in check by 
the forces of our advanced age. [Ap- 
plause.] 

After the meeting last Sunday night, 
a Roman Catholic stood in front of this 
pulpit, and, after referring to an experi- 
ence of thirty years in the holy confes- 
sional-box, expressed a very ardent desire 
to tear all the flesh from my bones. 
[Laughter.] About a dozen of you 
people had come forward and were eye- 
witnesses of the circus. [Laughter.] 
Fortunately, there was no china broken. 
[Laughter.] 

I close by asking whence this murder- 
ous desire in our own land, expressed in 



150 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

the presence of witnesses right here in 
this building, and sanctioned by a lead- 
ing Catholic editor, if it be not generated 
by the present-day teaching of the sys- 
tem, whose hands are red with the blood 
of more than fifty million saints, and 
which, according to its own proud boast, 
is infallible and unchangeable? [Ap- 
plause.] 



VI. 

ROMANISM AND AMERICAN 
INSTITUTIONS. 

(Ps. 20:5.) 

We are Americans, and these colors 
[pointing to the flag with which the 
Bible-stand was draped] are our ban- 
ners. [Applause.] 

Romanism affords such a variety of 
subjects that months could be devoted 
to its discussion. But it is the object of 
this series of lectures to emphasize only 
the major themes. 

In the second speech I called your 
attention to the fallacy of Papal infalli- 
bility. 

The third lifted to your view the 
priesthood — human and powerless, and 
in the iron grasp of an unnatural, im- 
moral system, and necessarily depraved 
because the law of cause and effect is 
no respecter of persons, situations, or 
religions. 

151 



152 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

The fourth revealed the confessional- 
box, the heart-throb of the system, as the 
instrument through which the unrelig- 
ious, uncivilized, unlawful theology that 
is taught in the Catholic seminaries 
strikes both ways, and frequently accom- 
plishes the ruin of both priest and 
penitent. 

The fifth presented conclusive evi- 
dence — evidence, the most of which 
slipped from Rome's own tongue — in 
proof of the proposition that modern 
Roman Catholicism is nothing more nor 
less than medieval Roman Catholicism. 

In the first discourse it was stated 
that Romanism is not a religion, but a 
world-wide political organization, and 
that it has designs on the United States. 
To-night evidence in support of that 
charge will be presented — evidence that 
will enable a blind man to see that 
Rome's church functions and benevo- 
lences are only covers under which she is 
operating her schemes against the free- 
dom for which the fathers of our country 
poured out their blood. 

Next Sunday night, when discussing 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 153 

"The Protestantism of Our Day and Its 
Relations to Roman Catholicism/' I shall 
prescribe what I consider the only- 
remedy. 

To my Protestant critics — and I ex- 
pected them to pop up [laughter] — who 
think me unbalanced and reckless, accuse 
me of sinister motives, and claim that 
I'm calling attention to a ''mare's nest'^ 
[laughter], I wish to say that my intellec- 
tual friends are chosen with some care 
and that I'm in good company, as I shall 
very soon prove. [Applause.] 

I could introduce an array of great 
men, who, if they stood side by side, 
would form a line from Broad and 
Twenty-first Streets to the Capitol — men 
who, having studied Romanism from 
every angle and foreshadowed its trend, 
have been brave and patriotic enough to 
proclaim their convictions from the 
housetops. But as I have some proposi- 
tions of my own to present for your 
consideration, I shall refer you to the 
utterances of only a few. 

'The influence of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church is adverse to freedom in the 



154 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

state, the family and the individual." — 
William E, Gladstone, 

"The pope, who would employ fire 
and sword against us if he had the 
power to do so, who would confiscate our 
property and not spare our lives, expects 
us to allow him full, uncontrolled sway/' 
— Bismarck. 

'This country had its first conflict 
for its independent existence; its second 
for its unbroken unity; the third will be 
for its institutions/' — Philip S chaff, 

''Jesuits are all devoted to the object 
of exterminating Protestantism — civil 
and religious — and extending the scepter 
of the Papacy over the world." — R, W. 
Thompson, 

"Papacy is a political system, des- 
potic in its organization, antidemocratic 
and antirepublican, and can not, there- 
fore, exist with American republican- 
ism."^ — Professor Morse, 

"If the liberties of the American 
people are ever destroyed, it will be by 
the power of the Roman clergy." — La- 
fayette, 

"The whole of the Roman Catholic 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 155 

population of the male persuasion are 
being drilled and disciplined. I tell you, 
we are living upon a volcano." — CoL 
Edwin A. Sherman, 

'It is no secret that the Roman Cath- 
olic Church is utterly and irrevocably 
opposed to our common-school system.'' 
— Beecher. 

''If we are to have another contest in 
the near future of our national existence, 
I predict that the dividing-line will not 
be Mason and Dixon's, but it will be 
between patriotism and intelligence on 
one side and superstition, ambition, and 
ignorance on the other." — General Grant, 
[Applause.] 

"The history of the last thousand 
years tells us that wherever the Church 
of Rome is not a dagger to pierce the 
bosom of a free nation, she is a stone 
to her neck and a ball to her feet, to 
paralyze her and prevent her advance in 
the ways of civilization, science, intelli- 
gence, happiness, and liberty. Through 
not a prophet, I see a very dark cloud 
on our horizon. And that dark cloud is 
coming from Rome. It is filled with 



156 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

tears of blood. It will rise and increase 
till its flanks will be torn by a flash of 
lightning, followed by a fearful peal of 
thunder. Then a cyclone, such as the 
world has never seen, will pass over this 
country, spreading ruin and desolation 
from North to South. After it is over, 
there will be long days of peace and 
prosperity; for popery, with its Jesuits 
and merciless Inquisition, will have been 
forever swept from our country." — 
Abraham Lincoln. [Applause.] 

Ladies and gentlemen, I would rather 
think in line with such men as these than 
be classed with the spineless preachers 
and thimble-brained laymen who are jab- 
bing at me with toothpicks and saying 
I ought to preach the gospel and let 
Romanism alone. [Applause.] Nine- 
tenths of the people who are always 
objecting to what some one else is doing 
would not know the gospel if they met 
it on the street. [Laughter.] And the 
preacher who hasn't gotten far enough 
into the alphabet of the gospel to discover 
that it condemns Romanism ought to go 
back to plowing corn. [Applause.] 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 157 

But I doubt if he would have sufficient 
gumption to discriminate between the 
weeds and the corn. [Laughter.] 

I have repeatedly called your atten- 
tion to the fact that Catholics of to-day 
are taught that their church is infallible, 
and therefore unchangeable. In the 
preceding lecture I affirmed that the 
decrees of Romanism against heretics 
have not only never been rescinded, but 
are still taught as doctrines divine, and 
that the old-time spirit of persecution — 
shorn of its legal power — is yet in exist- 
ence, manifesting itself in numerous 
ways. And I submitted irrefutable evi- 
dence in support of the affirmation. 

To-night I shall prove just as conclu- 
sively that Rome's political ambitions are 
as robust and determined to-day as they 
were in 1213, when King John of Eng- 
land was humiliated, and in 1209, when 
Count Raimond of France was beaten, 
and in 1077, when Emperor Henry of 
Germany kissed the pope's toe. [Laugh- 
ter.] Perhaps some of you, who have 
attended all these meetings, are convinced 
by this time that when I say I'll prove 



158 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

something I mean business. [Applause.] 
And you will also recall that I usually 
pour the final glass of cider out of the 
Catholic jug. [Laughter.] In support 
of the charge I've just preferred, I shall 
rely exclusively upon Catholic tesimony, 
giving you only a little of the mass in 
my possession. For a few minutes, 
therefore, you will have to drink only 
from the Catholic jug. [Laughter.] 
And I hope the beverage will sufficiently 
intoxicate you to stir your patriotism 
and determine you to at once start a 
movement in Columbus that will tell 
Romanism it does not own the very air 
you breathe. [Applause.] 

Thomas Aquinas lived in the thir- 
teenth century, but his ''De Regimime 
Principum'' and '^Summa'' are still taught 
in the Catholic seminaries. 

Pope Leo XIII., in his Encyclical of 
1879, commanded that all the doctrines 
of Aquinas should be taught. And that 
command, like all other Papal commands, 
is still law in the Catholic Church. I 
can give you only a snatch of this pres- 
ent-day Catholic teaching, and here it is 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 159 

— verbatim et literatim, ''The Church of 
Rome is one monarchy over all the king- 
doms of the earth, and is, among tem- 
poral kingdoms, as the mind or soul 
in the body of a man, or as God in the 
world. The Church of Rome was insti- 
tuted by Christ to direct men to the ulti- 
mate end of man; and therefore must be 
unerring, and must also govern all sec- 
ondary ends; must order everything 
which has the least relation to the ulti- 
mate end, whether it helps or obstructs 
men in reaching the end. Therefore the 
Church of Rome must not onlv have all 
spiritual power, but also the supreme 
temporal power." 

How does that sound over here in 
America in the year 1914? If any of 
vou have been blind to the situation, and 
have concluded that the Roman Church 
long ago sent her political ambitions to 
purgatory [laughter], and is now spend- 
ing all her time saying mass [laughter], 
perhaps this will serve you as an eye- 
opener. 

But when the eyes are pried open, 
they usually need a little ointment to 



160 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

make the vision clearer. Don't get un- 
easy and fear that the medicine-chest 
may be empty; I have plenty of ointment. 
[Laughter.] Before I began practicing 
on this case, I anticipated the demand for 
medicine, and ''stocked up.'^ [Laughter.] 

I could rummage among the ancient 
medicine-shelves, but I haven't much use 
for an out-of-date doctor. [Laughter.] 

The first application will be that of 
a salve made by Dr. Leo XIII. in 1885. 
[Laughter.] Its technical name is '7m- 
mortale Dei/' This Encyclical proclaims 
that ''the pope has supreme authority, 
spiritual and temporal; and has the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven; and has a 
supreme legislative, judicial, and coactive 
authority in both spheres." Now, I 
know your eyes feel a little easier. 
[Laughter.] 

But wait, ril pour a little ointment 
out of the present Papal bottle [laughter] 
and it will cut away what remains of 
the cataract the "Catholic Benevolence'' 
scheme has grown over your eyes. Pius 
X. is pointed to as a liberal pope. The 
truth is, he is about as straight as a 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 161 

pretzel. [Laughter.] In his recent 
EncycUcal to the French, ''Vehementer 
Nos/' he declares: 'That church and 
state should be separated is a most false 
and pernicious doctrine.'' Isn't that 
superlatively delicious ! [ Laughter. ] 
Doesn't it make your eyes feel good? 
[Laughter.] I told you I could cure you. 
[Laughter.] 

From the first proclamation of uni- 
versal Papal supremacy down to the last 
word spoken upon the subject, by the 
present pontiif, the Catholic Church has 
taught, as she intends to always teach, 
that the pope is the only logical ruler of 
the world. 

If Pius X. should speak a word or 
write a sentence against universal Papal 
dominion, he would, by that act, put a 
lie between the lips of all his predeces- 
sors, declare the Papacy fallible, and 
touch a spring in Peter's chair which 
would shoot him, like a sky-rocket, into 
a mud-hole on Mars. [Laughter.] He 
would be deposed so suddenly that he 
would think Mrs. Pankhurst and a mil- 
lion suffragettes had dropped down out 
11 



162 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

of the sky into his bachelor quarters 
about two minutes before breakfast. 
[Laughter.] And he would go down in 
history as an antipope. Therefore, per- 
haps he should not be too severely cen- 
sured for saying to himself: ''Times are 
hard and living is high. It would be 
difficult for an old bachelor, like me, to 
make both ends meet — should I leave the 
Vatican. I doubt if, at my time of life, 
I could marry a rich widow. [Laugh- 
ter.] And, although I live in the twen- 
tieth century and know better, Vl\ con- 
tinue this silly notion of Papal supremacy 
and hold on to my job." [Applause.] 

But I'm not yet through with your 
eyes. They have fully recovered their 
sight. But, inasmuch as the majority of 
you are getting along in years [laughter], 
I think you will need some extra glim- 
mers. [Laughter.] I shall, therefore, 
hang a pair of American glasses on your 
nose. [Laughter.] And when they are 
properly adjusted, you will have no 
doubts about the thing you are looking 
at. 

In an uncontradicted sermon, re- 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 163 

ported to have been delivered in St 
Louis, June 30, 1912, by Father D. S. 
Phelan — pastor of Mt. Carmel Church 
and editor of the Western Watchman, 
and reputed to be one of the brainiest 
and most influential men in the Catholic 
Church to-day- — we read the following- 
patriotic deliverance: ''Why is it every- 
body is afraid of the Catholic Church? 
And the American people more afraid of 
her than any people of the w^orld? Why 
are they afraid of the Catholic Church? 
They know what the Catholic Church 
means. It means all the Catholics of 
the world; not of one country, or two 
countries, but all the countries of the 
world. And it means more than that: 
it means that the Catholics of the world 
love the church more than anything else; 
that the Catholics of the world love the 
church more than they do their own gov- 
ernments, more than they do their own 
people, more than they do their own 
fortunes, more than they do their own- 
selves. We of the Catholic Church are 
ready to go to the death for the church. 
Under God, she is the supreme object of 



164 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

our worship. Tell us that we think more 
of the church than we do of the United 
States; of course we do. Tell us we are 
Catholics first and Americans or English- 
men afterwards; of course we are. Tell 
us, in the conflict between the church and 
the civil government, we take the side of 
the church; of course we do. Why, if 
the Government of the United States 
were at war with the church, we would 
say, to-morrow, to hell with the Govern- 
ment of the United States; and if the 
church and all the governments of the 
world were at war, we would say to hell 
with all the governments of the world." 

I understand that some of my critics 
are accusing me of delivering inflamma- 
tory speeches. But it's a case of mistaken 
identity. [Laughter.] Father Phelan's 
the fellow that's doing it, out in St. 
Louis. [ Laughter. ] 

But don't leave the soda-fountain yet. 
[Laughter.] The holy St. Louis father 
is about to pour another refreshing drink 
of loyal Americanism out of that gill 
bottle he calls his head. [Laughter.] 

''Why is the Pope such a tremendous 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 165 

power? All the emperors, all the kings, 
all the princes, all the Presidents of the 
world to-day, are as these altar boys of 
mine. The Pope is the ruler of the 
world." This according to the reported 
sermon of June 30, 1912. 

Hey, Teddy! [laughter] Go to St. 
Louis and put Father Phelan in the 
Ananias Club! [Laughter.] He's told 
a whopper! [Laughter.] 

If you think Rome has become so old 
and feeble that she's lost her political 
ambitions, you are reckoning without 
your host. 

The old lady has lived a long time. 
But, while she's suffering considerably 
with congestion of the confessional-box 
iniquities [laughter], inflammation of 
public sentiment [laughter], and a clear- 
ly pronounced case of bacheloritis 
[laughter], she's still quite spry [laugh- 
ter] — and she's reaching for Uncle Sam's 
chin- whisker. [Laughter.] And if once 
she gets her fingers round it good and 
tight, she'll swing the old gentleman 
about until he'll think he's Josiah Allen, 
tumbling down the stairs at Saratoga. 



166 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

If some one should propose that there 
should be a Methodist or Baptist or 
Presbyterian delegate at Washington, or 
that our Government should be perma- 
nently or now and then officially repre- 
sented at the headquarters of either of 
these or any Protestant denomination, he 
would be considered a fit subject for the 
lunacy commission. [Applause.] 

Or if it should be suggested that a 
delegate, representing all the Protestant 
denominations, be stationed at Washing- 
ton, the proposition would be regarded 
as a big joke. [Applause.] 

And if the Jews should come forward 
with their official representative, Uncle 
Sam would split his sides with laughter. 
[Applause.] 

If it be argued that Tm treading on 
thin ice and am likely to fall through 
into hot water [laughter], I would like 
to ask a few questions. 

Why is it that the Roman Church 
has a standing cabinet which, through her 
agents the world around, keeps the Vati- 
can posted regarding all details of gov- 
ernmental affairs under the sun? And 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 167 

if the Vatican is not in politics, why- 
does it wish such information? If any 
are disposed to doubt the propriety of 
this question, let them consult the files of 
the London Times and read Lord Robert 
Montague's articles. 

Why does Uncle Sam's face settle 
into serious repose at the mention of a 
Papal delegate? Why doesn't he throw 
his star-spangled hat into the air, slap 
his striped trousers, and laugh till his 
teeth fly out [laughter] when Rome says 
to him: ''Bend down. I want to whis- 
per something of a confidential nature 
into your ear"? [Applause.] 

Why the suspicious visits of busy 
cardinals to the United States? And 
why do they always manage to get into 
secret touch with the influential men of 
our country? Why is there a handsome 
building in Washington, maintained as 
the headquarters of the 'Tapal Delegate 
to the Catholic Church in the United 
States'' ? Why is this building in Wash- 
ington instead of Baltimore, or some 
other Catholic stronghold? And why 
is it constantly surrounded with such 



168 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

an atmosphere of mystery — if it is in 
nowise the headquarters of a nuncio to 
our Government? 

Why did President Taft send Major 
Butt, an employe in the United States 
Government, over to Rome? I've seen 
the explanation that Major Butt simply 
carried greetings from the President to 
the Pope. But why partiality? Why 
didn't the President send the Major with 
greetings to the head of the Episcopal 
Church in England, and the head of the 
Lutheran Church in Germany, and the 
head of the Greek Church in Russia? 
[Applause.] Are we to conclude that his 
supply of greetings was too limited to 
go around? [Laughter.] I do not 
wonder that the 'Titanic," on which the 
greeting-bearer was returning home, de- 
cided to hide her blushing face and 
plunged to the bottom of the ocean. 
[Applause.] 

And why have our Presidents formed 
the habit of taking members of the 
Cabinet and going to St. Patrick's on 
Thanksgiving Day, thereby setting an 
obnoxious precedent, and, whether they 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 169 

acknowledge or deny it, officially recog- 
nizing the Roman Catholic Church? 
[Applause.] Why do they not distrib- 
ute their Thanksgiving visits among all 
the great churches? [Applause.] 

Many have inquired, since these 
meetings began, as to the complexion of 
my politics. I have nothing to conceal, 
and ril admit that I've spent all my life 
voting for Bryan. [Laughter.] And 
when Wilson was inaugurated and Bryan 
became Secretary of State, I threw up 
my cap and shouted, ''Hurrah! The 
country's saved again!" [Laughter.] 
But when, on last Thanksgiving Day, 
Wilson and Bryan — each an elder in 
the Presbyterian Church — proceeded to 
St. Patrick's, against the united protest 
of the Washington clergy and the wishes 
of the entire American Protestantism 
which had put them in office, and par- 
ticipated in a ceremony from which their 
hearts were as far removed as the poles 
are apart, I was ashamed to look my 
dog in the face and tell him I was a 
Democrat. [ Laughter. ] 

But you Republicans needn't laugh so 



170 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

hilariously at the predicament we Dem- 
ocrats are in. [Laughter.] Think of Taft 
and hang your own heads. [Laughter.] 

Unless the sign-posts are all mis- 
marked, the Democratic and Republican 
parties have each sold out to Rome, and 
are both in the same boat — sinking to- 
gether. [ Applause. ] 

The American people are gradually 
awaking from their ''party loyalty sleep,'* 
and the time is at hand when the integ- 
rity of their institutions will mean more 
to them than political parties. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

If the Republican party should cut 
loose from Rome and let the people know 
it, I believe the elephant could come 
back. [Applause.] But I don't believe 
it has the sense and the backbone to do 
it. [Applause.] 

The Catholic Church is neither 
Democratic nor Republican. But the 
Democratic and Republican parties are 
both Roman Catholic. [Applause.] If 
there were no other evidence, the Chicago 
and Baltimore conventions would verify 
the statement. [Applause.] 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 171 

But while the spectacular exhibitions 
of party loyalty to Rome are disgusting 
in the extreme, such episodes as the 
President kissing the Pope's toe — pare- 
gorically speaking [laughter] — are not so 
serious as Rome's manipulation of gov- 
ernmental machinery under cover. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Consult the rosters and convince 
yourselves that the Vatican party — oper- 
ating in the disguise of both Democracy 
and Republicanism — places its watch- 
dogs at every possible door. When there 
is an appointive office of significance 
hanging over the wall, Rome reaches for 
it and usually gets it. 

If you wish to shake hands with the 
President, you must first shake hands 
with Tumulty. [Laughter.] And if you 
wish to write a letter to the President, 
I would advise you to direct it to Bryan ; 
it might reach its destination with 
greater speed. [Applause.] 

Tm pointing to the White House 
door only as an example. The White 
House is by no means the most important 
center of our Government. 



172 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Come on down the line through the 
national houses, glance at the commit- 
tees, and continue your journey of inves- 
tigation into the governments of States. 

You need go no farther than Ohio 
to be convinced that Fm not chasing a 
flea. [Laughter.] It's the larger pest 
I'm after. [Laughter.] Uncle Sam 
wonders why he can't sleep. But if he 
would examine his bed, he would dis- 
cover that his pillow-cases and sheets 
are peppered all over with the stains of 
his own blood. [Laughter.] Count the 
Catholics on the bench and at the head 
of departments in Ohio — number them 
one by one — and don't overlook the fact 
that the secretaries of the industrial and 
administration boards are in a position 
to guard Rome's interests. And when 
you have consulted the political map of 
Ohio, you will have looked at the situa- 
tion, varied a little here and there, the 
country over. 

Inflate the statistics all you may, by 
counting children that have died since 
the beginning of a given year and chil- 
dren yet unborn, and you will discover 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 173 

that the CathoUcs do not constitute one- 
fifth of our country's population. The 
CathoHc representation in our multiplex 
government is, therefore, out of all 
proportion to the Catholic population. 
Why? 

Parties have come and parties have 
gone, but Rome has pushed and is push- 
ing steadily on — getting her hooks into 
the network of our Government, both 
Federal and State, to say nothing of the 
municipal end of the game. 

In 1888 James G. Blaine introduced 
a bill in the House of Representatives 
the object of which was the safeguarding 
of our school funds and public lands 
against sectarian abuses. Senator Blair 
unhesitatingly said the bill was defeated 
as a consequence of Catholic influence. 

But that is not the only fish the Pope 
has kept our lawmakers from pulling 
ashore. If you will watch the houses at 
Washington, and the State Legislatures 
as well, you will frequently see good- 
looking fish dangling above water, then 
you will hear a splash and they are gone. 
[Laughter.] There's an unseen hand 



174 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

which reaches forth and unhooks them. 
[Laughter.] Rome teaches that in the 
olden days she performed miracles. I 
don't believe it. But I'm convinced that, 
at Washington and our State cap- 
itols, she performs miracles nowadays. 
[Laughter.] 

But let us glance at some of our 
more specific institutions. 

Is the Catholic Church opposed to 
our public schools? It will not require 
much time to answer the question. 

A book to Catholic parents, ''J^^^g^^^ 
of Faith; Christian vs. Godless Schools," 
endorsed by Cardinal Gibbons and other 
high Romish churchmen, and containing 
the rulings of twenty councils, six synods, 
and two popes, denounces the public 
school as 'Vicious," ^'filthy," ''irreligious," 
"scandalous," "unchristian," "diabolical," 
"godless," "positively dangerous," "a 
detestable system," and "a place where 
children imbibe germs of infidelity and 
immorality." 

Freeman's Journal, a Catholic paper, 
said: "Let the public-school system go 
back to where it came from — the devil." 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 175 

In 1902, in one of the largest Catholic 
churches of Chicago, the priest delivered 
a sermon in which he said: 'Tarents 
who send their children to the godless 
public school are going straight to hell/* 

But why multiply testimony? Leo 
XIII. spoke, ex cathedra, against the 
public school; the present pontiff is, ex 
cathedra y against it; the Catholic press 
is against it, the Catholic priesthood is 
against it, and the argument is complete. 

Nevertheless, the Catholic Church 
sees to it that she is influentially repre- 
sented both on the school boards and in 
the classroom. 

Furthermore, while at present there 
is a lull in the agitation of the subject, 
Rome's demand for a division of the 
school funds is not hushed — nor will it 
be for years to come. 

That the Catholic Church is opposed 
to free speech is evidenced by the meet- 
ings she has broken up, one of which 
was at New Lexington, Ohio, only a few 
weeks ago. 

Eighteen or twenty years ago, when 
the Christian Endeavor Convention was 



176 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

held in Montreal, a Catholic mob cut 
down the tent in the afternoon and be- 
sieged the Drill Hall at night. The 
soldiery of the city had to be called out 
to protect the Christian Endeavorers. I 
was in both the tent and the hall, and 
know whereof I speak. 

And an official demand, which con- 
tained the usual low-down, cowardly, 
hell-born boycott threat, was made, right 
here in Columbus, that the officers of this 
church should padlock my mouth. 
[Laughter.] But the key was lost and 
it couldn't be padlocked. [Laughter.] 
And, while I inaugurated this series of 
lectures entirely on my own responsi- 
bility, I wish to add that the officers of 
this church had backbones and stood by 
the ship. [Applause.] 

ril not be so mild as to say Roman 
Catholicism is opposed to a free press. 
The general press of our country is no 
longer free; it is chained down good and 
tight. This is a sweeping statement. 
But if I don't prove it. Til eat my only 
hat and go bareheaded till Bryan is 
elected President. [Laughter.] 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 177 

In his book, ''America or Rome/' 
Brandt states, and submits an abundance 
of evidence in support of his charge, 
that the CathoHc Church dominates the 
mechanical, distributing, reportorial, and 
editorial departments of the great papers; 
that she censors the Associated Press 
news; and that the boycott club is held 
over the management of every news- 
paper in the land. But, as I have more 
specific evidence. Til dismiss Mr. Brandt 
and order his testimony stricken out. 

During the past six weeks, if I'm 
correctly informed, this church has been 
an interesting center — talked about on 
the streets, in offices, and even made the 
topic of conversation in towns fifty and 
sixty miles away. [Applause.] 

People tell me I am speaking to audi- 
ences twice as large as any other in the 
city. Each Monday morning we read 
about church meetings, great and small. 
But our enterprising newspapers have 
forgotten that I'm in town. [Laughter.] 
I'm not disappointed. [Applause.] 
There's a reason, and I know its nature. 
[Laughter.] Had our papers given ex- 



178 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

cerpts of these lectures, they would have 
lost thousands of dollars — the absence 
of Catholic advertisements would have 
made them baldheaded. [Laughter.] 
The silence of the Columbus papers is 
pretty good evidence. But we will let 
it slide, also. I have better testimony. 
[Applause. ] 

I have here [holding it up] an affi- 
davit, made day before yesterday by a 
gentleman who now sits within ten feet 
of this Bible-stand — a man well known 
throughout the city and highly respected 
by all. He states in this instrument that, 
thinking this a good time to get anti- 
papal literature into the homes of the 
people, he contracted with one of our 
daily papers to run an ad calling atten- 
tion to the merits of the Protestant 
Magazine, He paid $4.80 for the space 
and received the receipt. But his money 
was returned, and he was informed by 
the man ^'higher up" than the desk agent 
that the contract had been canceled. In 
a subsequent conversation he offered to 
modify the ad. But the man "higher up" 
replied that it could not be accepted 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 179 

under any circumstances. Think of it! 
A newspaper that runs whisky ads, and, 
like all other papers, seeks all kinds of 
ads, declining to advertise the most con- 
servative antipapal magazine in the 
country! [Applause.] Think of it! A 
Columbus newspaper violating a written 
contract, in which a money receipt fig- 
ures, and laying itself liable to successful 
prosecution — simply to keep on good 
terms with Rome! [Applause.] This is 
splendid testimony. But Til throw it 
out, and rest my case on something else. 
[Applause.] 

Now, IVe thrown away all this evi- 
dence — evidence that would stand in any 
court — and dismissed the witnesses. 
What shall I do? [Laughter.] If ever 
a man was in a pickle, I'm that man. 
[Laughter.] Ah! I hear an idea coming 
down through the dome! I have it! 
[Looks up and catches it like a ball.] [Ap- 
plause.] Why should I have remained, 
even a moment, in this hot box of ex- 
tremity when my faithful old witness 
was so near? [Applause.] You will 
recall that from the beginning of these 



180 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

lectures until now, Rome has been my 
''friend indeed" because she has been 
my ''friend in need/' [Applause.] 

Dear old Rome! [Laughter.] You 
have sustained me in every argumentative 
crisis. You have been faithful and truth- 
ful [laughter] in this campaign, and I 
have every reason for believing that you 
will not forsake me now and leave me 
helpless and embarrassed before this 
great audience. [Applause.] I'm now 
in the tightest of all the tight places I've 
been in yet [laughter], and if I ever 
needed your friendship, it's here and 
now. [Laughter.] Come to my rescue, 
friend of mine! [Laughter.] 

''I'm coming!" 

Why, how do you do? [Greets Rome 
with hearty handgrasp.] I'm delighted 
to see you. Pray be seated. 

Madam, I've managed to get myself 
into a scrape. I asserted that you con- 
trol the general press of the United 
States. I had some excellent witnesses — 
all unimpeachable. But I dismissed them 
and threw their testimony out of court. 
And now I rely entirely upon your 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 181 

generosity. If you fail me, I shall sink 
— never to rise again. But if you sus- 
tain me, ril appreciate the favor and 
give you another thrashing next Sunday 
night. [Laughter.] Please face the 
jury and state whether or not I told the 
truth. 

The old lady advises me that, as she 
has waddled along at a rapid gait to get 
here and rescue me;^ she is out of breath 
and will make Father Phelan her mouth- 
piece. [Applause.] I think you have 
heard of the gentleman. [Laughter.] 
She hands me a copy of the Western 
Watchman [holds up the paper], issued 
Jan. 22, 1914. [Applause.] The entire 
eleventh page and a column of the four- 
teenth contain the text of Father Phelan's 
sermon delivered in Mt. Carmel Church, 
St. Louis, Jan. 25, 1914. This sermon 
is such a brillant gem that it was pulled 
and put into type before it was delivered. 
[Laughter.] I would like to read you 
the whole of this remarkable sermon; it's 
as entertaining as a Punch and Judy 
show. [Laughter.] But I can take only 
enough time to read two items. 



182 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

1. "If the Catholics were united, we 
could walk over the world/' If you 
doubt Rome's desire to ''walk over the 
world/' ask Father Phelan about it. He 
never loses an opportunity to open his 
mouth and put his foot in it. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

2. ''We are respectable people, we 
are intelligent people, we can hold our 
own anywhere. In the pulpit, the world 
must listen to us. We control the press 
of the United States/' [Applause.] 

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I 
rest the case and entertain no fears of 
an unfavorable verdict at your hands. 
[Applause.] Bryan can delay his elec- 
tion to the Presidency as long as he 
pleases, I'll not have to eat my hat. 
[Laughter.] 

I've talked more than an hour, but 
I'm nothing like through. ["Keep on" 
from all over the house.] 

While I'm neither a Socialist nor a 
Freethinker, I am a free lance, in the 
full exercise of my prerogative to state 
my convictions. I now happen to have 
a conviction on tap, and I shall at once 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 183 

proceed to pour it out. [Applause.] If 
you wish to drink it, well and good. If 
you don't, you have my permission to 
continue drinking tea. [Laughter.] 
However, the time is not far distant 
when the weak tea of surface sentiment 
will no longer be on the market, and you 
will have to steady your nerves with the 
black, unsweetened coffee of common 
sense. [Applause.] 

Jesus was not little enough to crumple 
himself up at Caesar's throne and whine: 
''Your Excellency, I'm a preacher of 
righteousness. Therefore, I pray that I 
may be excused from paying my taxes." 
[Applause.] He paid his tax, held his 
head up, and exhibited such sterling mas- 
culine strength that Pilate pointed to him 
and said: ''Behold the man!" [Ap- 
plause.] 

One of the most ludicrous perform- 
ances I've ever witnessed was on a train 
between Petersburg and Norfolk, Va., 
when a preacher, weighing at least 250 
pounds, pulled himself, with great diffi- 
culty, into the vestibule, squeezed through 
the door, spread himself over an entire 



184 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

seat, then meekly handed the conductor 
a child's ticket. [Laughter.] 

The Christian religion, like its manly- 
founder, should pay its own way, hold up 
its head, and walk through the world 
with an air of independence. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

I've been pastor of struggling 
churches and associated with struggling 
church enterprises for nearly a quarter 
of a century; and my life in the future 
will be sacrificed upon the altar whereon 
I laid it when only a boy. But I declare 
to you that, after carefully considering 
the matter from all viewpoints, I see no 
reason under the sun why church prop- 
erty of any kind should be exempt from 
taxation. [Prolonged applause.] The 
exemption of church property from taxa- 
tion is incipient union of church and 
state. [Applause.] 

Furthermore, no church that sells a 
dish of strawberry ice-cream, with no 
strawberry in it [laughter], or a plate 
of warm water, with a last year's oyster 
in it [laughter], is living up to the re- 
quirements of the law, which is stretched 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 185 

over the situation — law stretched so taut 
that it hangs together only by threads. 
[Applause.] 

So far as hospitals are concerned, 
the law is stretched still more, even the 
threads are snapping. [Applause.] The 
charity accommodations of hospitals are 
usually so limited that I, for one, have 
frequently been unable to secure the 
entrance of worthy patients. 

State hospitals are regular, if they 
are managed in the interests of the pub- 
lic. But church hospitals, exempt from 
taxation and partially dependent upon 
State appropriations, are irregular. 

And when a church hospital compels 
a girl of tender years — a charity patient 
— to work in laundry and kitchen, scrub 
floors, empty jars, clean expectoration 
tins, and to sleep in a bed so situated 
that the wind blows from an open win- 
dow to it over two tubercular patients, 
and a Sister whips her because her work 
is unsatisfactory, as this affidavit [hold- 
ing up paper], made Jan. 15, 1914, and 
subscribed to by two reputable citizens, 
declares a Catholic hospital in our city did 



186 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

two weeks before last Christmas — it's 
time for the citizens of Columbus and 
Ohio to make a sweeping investigation. 
[Applause.] And I further aver that the 
law is stretched until even the threads no 
longer hold together. [Applause.] 

But I have, still, a more vital union 
of church and state to illustrate. I do 
not personally prefer the charge, because 
I personally know nothing about it. But 
this affidavit [produces it], made by a 
well-known and respected citizen, who, 
if he swore to a falsehood, ought to be 
taken in charge by his friends for having 
been foolish enough to take such a risk 
[applause], states that, in 1912, a prom- 
inent manufacturing company of our 
city had sixty-three sewing-machines in 
the convent at West Broad and Sandusky 
Streets; that these machines were oper- 
ated by girls, a number of whom were 
under fourteen years of age; and that 
these girls were given daily tasks to per- 
form. Before the war you Northern 
people thought it outrageous that South- 
ern people should assign their slaves daily 
tasks. According to this document, there 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 187 

are white slaves right here in your own 
city — wearing out their Hves in a Cath- 
olic sweatshop and suffering the imposi- 
tion of daily tasks! What are you 
going to do about it! [Applause.] If 
a secular company's sewing-machines in 
an untaxed convent sweatshop, and run 
by children under the scorpion lash of 
the ''daily task/' is not union of church 
and state on a scale that should cause 
every patriotic citizen of Ohio to rise up 
in a frame of mind that would be ready 
to demolish the iniquitous system which 
throttles our laws and commits such 
crimes, the word ''patriotism'' is as empty 
as a last year's bird's nest [Applause.] 
This evidence in my hands respects 
only Columbus institutions. But it 
strengthens the suspicion that Catholic 
institutions throughout our land are vio- 
lators of the law. [Applause.] All 
kinds of charges are preferred against 
Roman institutions that are exempt from 
taxation and protected by the Govern- 
ment. No other church would be per- 
mitted to have closed institutions, con- 
cerning which there was one-hundredth 



188 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

part as much suspicion as is lodged 
against the stone buildings of the Cath- 
olic Church. [Applause.] Why this 
partiality ? [ Applause. ] 

men of America! stand up straight, 
look your Government squarely in the 
face, and demand that every door shall 
be swung wide open and the light turned 
on! [Tremendous applause.] 

1 have here two other affidavits. But 
they are of such a nature that I dare 
not call your attention to their contents. 
They respect priests. [Laughter.] 

All these affidavits will be kept in a 
business man's safe, where I can put my 
hands on them at my will. And I wish 
to add that, if any one is boycotted as a 
result of these lectures, or any other 
dirty work is pulled off, I'm not a bit 
too good to put the law on a convent and 
a hospital and lift a couple of priests 
into unpleasant notoriety. [Applause.] 

I shall say no more in support of the 
proposition that Romanism is a menace 
to American institutions, though there's 
plenty more that could be said. [Ap- 
plause.] 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 189 

Rome acknowledges that she is after 
our institutions, and, as I proved awhile 
ago, she even boasts, from the pulpit and 
in print, that she has captured and con- 
trols Uncle Sam's most powerful agency 
— the public press. And it's my opinion 
that a Protestant who is so dumb he can 
not see danger ahead ought to be taken 
to the confessional-box and put on pen- 
ance until he learns how to think. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Rome is determined to force Colum- 
bus Day on the American people; not 
that she is patriotic, but to strengthen 
her cause. She maintains that Columbus 
was a Catholic. But if any priest, 
bishop, cardinal, or pope will meet me 
in debate and try to prove that Colum- 
bus was a Catholic, I'll undertake the 
task of proving that he was a Jew. [Ap- 
plause.] 

It is also rumored that Romanism is 
quietly planning to create sentiment in 
favor of putting a cross on the flag. 

I daily strive to live with the cross 
before my eyes. "I am a soldier of the 
cross.'' 



190 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

"In the cross of Christ I glory, 

Towering o'er the wrecks of time: 
All the light of sacred story- 
Gathers 'round its head sublime!" 

I shall humbly follow the cross down 
the slope of time, and when disease or 
accident hurls me upon the heaving 
bosom of the eternal deep, the cross will 
be my Rock of Ages. [Applause.] 

Nevertheless, I know I speak for 
millions of loyal Americans when I 
say I stand ready to spill every drop 
of blood in my body before the cross 
shall be printed on the flag. [Ap- 
plause.] 

The cross, lifted up in the gospel 
message — by precept and example — 
means ultimate universal redemption. 
[Applause.] 

But the cross athwart the ^'Stars and 
Stripes" would mean the degradation of 
America to the illiteracy and depravity 
of Catholic countries beyond the seas and 
the hell that is now raging in Mexico. 
[Applause.] 

Last Friday I received a letter from 
a young man in the U. S. Navy. V\\ 



AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 191 

read you a snatch from its pages of 
patriotism : 

'1 feel doubly proud when the ship's 
band strikes up The Star-spangled Ban- 
ner/ and I stand at attention and salute 
the old flag. I love that flag and would 
die to protect it. As I see it rise to the 
peak of the ship's flagstaff, a peculiar 
thrill affects me that is hard to describe." 
[Applause.] 

This young man loves the flag and 
would die for it for the same reason that 
every true American loves it and would 
die for it. [Applause.] 

The flag stands for an unfettered 
state, liberty of conscience, free speech, 
an unbound press, and the freedom of 
all other institutions of public interest. 
[Applause.] 

Liberty! On Bedlow's Island she 
proudly stands, clothed in 220 tons of 
bronze, and in her outstretched hand, 305 
feet above meantide, she holds the torch 
that will illuminate the world! [Ap- 
plause. ] 



VIL 

THE REMEDY. 
(Rev. 18:2-8.) 

For six weeks I have held the greatest 
menace of the nations up to your view, 
caUing your attention to the most com- 
prehensive themes it presents. 

I have endeavored to treat the subject 
historically and in the light of current 
events, also from the viewpoint of the 
law of cause and effect. 

And in their discussion I have re- 
sorted to neither exaggeration nor in- 
temperance. 

I assured you, in the beginning, that 
only such propositions as could be sus- 
tained would be submitted. And if I 
have preferred a charge that has not 
been supported by facts, and some one 
will point it out, I'll buy a pint of holy 
water and spend my remaining days mak- 
ing crosses on my forehead. [Laugh- 
ter.] 



192 



THE REMEDY 193 

I have called into consultation a num- 
ber of the most renowned political and 
religious diagnosticians of history and 
the present day, and they agree that the 
world has suffered and is still suffering 
the inflictions of a loathsome, deep- 
seated, extremity-reaching disease known 
as Roman Catholicism. Tve even had 
doctors such as Baronius, Alzog and 
Pastor, who were themselves afflicted 
with the disease, in the consultation. 
[Laughter.] And they testify, from 
their own experience, that it is a ter- 
rible malady. [Applause.] Several times 
Tve called in the St. Louis quack. 
[Laughter.] But he thinks the disease 
affords the patient sensations that are 
delightful, and hopes everybody will 
catch it. [Laughter.] He even goes 
so far as to announce that if he can 
induce all who have this disease to 
co-operate with him, he'll cause the 
whole world to break out with it. 
[Laughter.] 

Seriously, diagnosing a case and pre- 
scribing treatment are two different 
things. And usually the remedies pre- 

13 



194 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

scribed are about as numerous as the 
physicians. [ Laughter. ] 

It's strange, but every one seems to 
know what will cure everything. And 
it's evidently human nature to recom- 
mend cure-alls to others. 

Inasmuch as our meetings in the past 
have been as solemn as funeral occasions 
[laughter], Tm sure you will pardon me 
if I relax a little and tell you a yarn. 
[Applause.] 

Two men met on the street one day. 
And, after the formal greeting, the fol- 
lowing conversation took place. 

'l-I-I s-see y-you stut-stut-stutter. If- 
if y-you'll go-go to-to the m-man on-on 
H-H-igh S-Street that adver-ti-ti-tises, 
he'll c-c-cure y-you." 

^'How do-d-do y-you know h-h-he 
c-can c-c-cure m-me?" 

'Why, h-h-he c-c-cured m-m-me." 
[Laughter.] 

For several weeks I've had a cranky 
cold, which has been brazen enough to 
let everybody know it was on the job. 
And you people have been sympathetic 
and kind enough to come forward after 



THE REMEDY 195 

the meetings, in droves and companies 
and battalions and regiments, and tell 
me what to do for it. [Laughter.] The 
remedies you have suggested have 
ranged all the way from the old-fash- 
ioned ginger stew to a sock tied around 
the throat at bedtime. [Laughter.] I 
have very much appreciated your solici- 
tude. But had I taken everything you 
have recommended, my bank account 
would have been exhausted [laughter], 
the drugstores would have been put out 
of business [laughter], and every Cath- 
olic in town would have long since 
praised God from whom all blessings 
flow. [Laughter.] 

All admit that, religiously, politically, 
commercially, and socially, there's some- 
thing wrong. Every one who does any 
thinking has a remedy to offer, and those 
of us who do no thinking are the most 
insistent upon the remedies we suggest. 
[Laughter.] 

It has been said that the man who 
thinks he thinks is the biggest fool in 
the world. 

I plead guilty to thinking that Tve 



196 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

thought some upon Roman Catholicism 
in its relations to the church, state, and 
society. And Tm egotistic enough to 
add that I think my thinking has been 
done in terms of history, prophecy, 
psychology, and the logic of situations. I 
therefore offer no apology for falling in 
line with everybody else and presenting 
to you this evening what I consider effica- 
cious remedies for this world-wide dis- 
ease. Nor do I hesitate to say I think 
my prescription the best on the market. 
[Laughter.] 

As has been previously stated, Rome 
is losing out in Europe, and with greater 
rapidity than is generally suspected. 
[Applause.] But she is still ambitious 
to reconquer the world. And, depending 
upon immigration and a gradually devel- 
oped political prestige, she hopes to 
enthrone herself in America and then 
step forth from our shores to bind her 
shibboleths upon all the nations of the 
world. 

I know present-day prophecy is con- 
sidered unreliable. Nevertheless, I pre- 
dict that within the next fifty years Italy 



THE REMEDY 197 

will become a republic, and that then, if 
not before, the Vatican will be adorned 
with a ''for rent" sign and the pope will 
tuck his coffee-pot under his arm and 
look for bachelor quarters in some other 
''neck of the woods." [Applause.] 

Italy, though Catholic, is learning to 
read. And "much learning" will even- 
tually open her eyes to the impositions 
under which she has suffered so long, 
and make her mad. [Applause.] Her 
crown is no longer a target for the 
pope to throw snowballs at. [Laugh- 
ter.] Pius IX. was the last bad boy 
who enjoyed that sport. And she is 
growing weary, already, of a great build- 
ing no public official can enter, a citizen 
no law can touch, and a standing army 
over which she has no control. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

But Romanism has a keen eye; it 
looks through a long telescope, and it 
views with alarm the steady approach of 
a distant comet which will some day 
swish its tail and incidentally brush the 
Papacy out of Italy. [Applause.] 
Hence the political preparations, now in 



198 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

progress, to secure a residence in Ameri- 
ca for the Pope, when he shall decide- 
voluntarily, of course — that the climate 
of Rome is no longer congenial to an old 
bachelor's health. [Laughter.] 

Unless the signboards are all wrong 
end first, America has been selected as 
the future theater on whose stage 
Romanism proposes to do the tango 
dance. [ Laughter. ] 

That isn't so far-fetched as it sounds. 
I hold in my hand the monthly magazine* 
of St. Joseph's Cathedral, Columbus, O., 
dated February, 1914. Til read you an 
extract or two from the first article, en- 
titled 'The Modern Dance." [Laugh- 
ter.] The article is a little racy. But 
ril skip the sentences that would reflect 
most upon my lack of good taste, and 
perhaps you will be able to stand the 
rest. [Laughter.] 

''Girls who kick up their heels in the 

*St. Joseph's Cathedral is on East Broad Street, and is the 
largest and most fashionable Catholic church of Columbus. 
During the week following the delivery of this lecture, the 
Bishop of Columbus stated in an interview in the Columbus 
papers that the article on "Dancing" crept into the magazine 
unawares, and apologized for its appearance. Yet it was the 
first and the leading article in the magazine. Quite a com- 
mentary on the editorial staff! 



THE REMEDY 199 

tango are doing the will of God. The 
will of God is that girls should get mar- 
ried . . . and to do that they must ex- 
hibit themselves in such wise as to attract 
the attention of the sterner sex/' It's too 
bad that this article was not written 
when some of us were younger. [Laugh- 
ter.] 

Let me read a little more of this 
Scriptural and elevating teaching from 
our neighbor Broad Street church. 

'Teople do not understand the inno- 
cent female mind. Those tango-dancing 
girls are engaged in God's work. The 
bewitching little miss who disports her 
charms in the ballroom is doing God's 
work as emphatically as the bishop in his 
orisons." And with that part of the 
article I agree. [Laughter.] Up to the 
present time, I've been too busy to go 
and look at the tango dance. [Laugh- 
ter.] But I have seen Catholic priests 
and bishops perform. And if the tango 
dance is more ridiculous than some of 
their stunts, it certainly is a whirlwind. 
[Laughter.] 

How did I get hold of this ably edited, 



200 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

religious magazine? I have a way of 
getting what I want, and I happened to 
want this little treasure of wisdom. 
[Laughter.] 

But we will draw the curtain on that 
little show and proceed to business. 

In view of Rome's proposed future 
operations, and in consideration of the 
fact that Uncle Sam already has a good- 
sized Catholic carbuncle on his neck 
[laughter], I shall confine my prescrip- 
tions to his case. 

After all, I find myself in accord with 
that song, a line of which runs : 

"As goes America, so goes the world." 

[Applause.] 

I recall a sick-room in which the 
patient was in extreme pain. And I 
remember that the physician said some- 
thing about treating the case sympto- 
matically, then prescribing a course of 
constitutional treatment. 

My knowledge of medicine is about 
as limited as is the average priest's 
knowledge of the Bible. [Laughter.] 

However, as the constitutional treat- 
ment would be long and tedious, I have 



THE REMEDY 201 

an idea the physician realized that the 
patient had to be reUeved of immediate 
distress; hence his reference to sympto- 
matic treatment. 

Whether my inference be right or 
wrong, it will illustrate the methods I 
shall propose for the immediate relief 
of Uncle Sam's painful neck. And after 
specifying these quick remedies, I shall 
prescribe the only constitutional treat- 
ment which, from my viewpoint, will 
drive every germ of Roman Catholicism 
from the old gentleman's system. [Ap- 
plause.] 

The first thing necessary is a good, 
thick, hot poultice of publicity, pressed 
down as hard as he can stand it on his 
carbuncle, and kept there until the germs 
stop wriggling so near the surface — 
thereby reducing the inflammation and 
easing the pain. [Applause.] 

But what is to be the medium of im- 
mediate, widespread publicity? 

I proved to you, in the preceding lec- 
ture, that the general press of the country 
has been drawn into the boil; and that's 
one reason why our uncle holds his head 



202 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

bent over so far and emits such pathetic 
groans when he tries to turn his head. 
[Laughter.] The general press, there- 
fore, can not be reUed upon. 

It's also evident that the two great 
political parties have tumbled — headlong 
— into the carbuncle and are boiling with 
the press. [Laughter.] That's what 
makes the old man too sick at his stom- 
ach, on Thanksgiving Day, to enjoy his 
turkey dinner. [Laughter.] 

With the general press and the two 
dominant parties eliminated, we have left 
only the independent press, the pulpit, the 
free lance on the platform, a few small 
political parties, and other odds and ends 
of scattered agencies. By way of agita- 
tion, these agencies — all save one — are 
loyally applying themselves to the great 
educational task. But the treatment is 
too slow. 

The most immediately available 
agency is the one that is practically silent 
— the pulpit. I say ''practically silent" 
because, while the pulpit, here and there, 
is opening its mouth upon the subject, it 
has not yet made an attack upon Roman 



THE REMEDY 203 

Catholicism at all commensurate with its 
information, convictions, and opportuni- 
ties. Preachers, like priests, are human. 
[Laughter.] And I fear some shrink 
from the possibility of bodily harm, un- 
pleasantness for their families, and espe- 
cially the fearful threat of boycott which 
Rome never fails to make. 

I could call your attention to publicity 
efforts upon the part of the pulpit in 
several localities — efforts that have at- 
tracted widespread interest. 

But the effort, closing to-night, upon 
the part of this pulpit, will serve as an 
illustration of what preachers everywhere 
could and will yet do. 

This is one of the large auditoriums 
of the city, and it is so located that it is 
not at all accessible to the masses. Yet 
for seven weeks its capacity has been 
taxed, and multitudes have been turned 
away. To-night the country is in the 
grasp of the worst blizzard of the season. 
The streets are well-nigh impassable. It 
is with difficulty that one can push 
through the cold, blinding storm. But 
when I arrived, a half-hour before the 



204 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

time for services, the house was full. 
[Applause.] 

This is only one pulpit. Nevertheless, 
it has put people, in every part of the 
city and in surrounding towns, to think- 
ing and talking upon the outrages of 
Roman Catholicism. [Applause.] 

Now, let us suppose that, instead of 
one pulpit, all the pulpits of the city had 
held the subject up to public view for 
seven weeks. What would the results 
have been? Til tell you. By now, 
Romanism would have dropped its big 
boycott stick and been on its knees, beg- 
ging for mercy and promising to be good. 
[Applause.] Every newspaper in town 
would have cut loose from the general 
press regulations and swung into line 
with Protestantism. [Applause.] Doors 
to gloomy buildings would have been 
unlocked [applause], pale-faced girls 
would have been liberated [applause], 
and sewing-machines would have jumped 
out of sweatshops [applause] and gone 
through the air back to their owners, 
like ''singers" in springtime. [Ap- 
plause.] 



THE REMEDY 205 

And suppose all the Protestant min- 
isters in Ohio should speak, long and 
loud, upon the subject. Romanism would 
think San Francisco had come over to 
pull off an earthquake. [Laughter.] 

And while we are supposing, we will 
suppose that the Protestant ministry of 
America should speak, as the voice of 
one man and in no uncertain terms, 
pointing to the extreme fallacy of Roman 
teaching, the depravity of the system, 
and the dangers that confront our 
country. [Applause.] Such an effort 
would put into concrete shape, on a na- 
tion-wide scale, the movement now so 
slowly engineered by the minor agencies, 
and it would be the beginning of the 
end. [Applause.] The priests and 
bishops and cardinals would think they 
had smallpox [laughter] ; Father Phelan, 
of St. Louis, would think he had mumps, 
instead of the swelled head he now has 
[laughter] ; and the old bachelor over in 
the Vatican would think he had suffered 
a stroke of matrimony. [Laughter.] 

We have demonstrated, here, the 
theory that, if the preachers would speak 



206 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

out upon Romanism, the people would lis- 
ten — both Protestants and Catholics. 
[Applause.] Catholics, in large numbers, 
have attended these meetings, and a num- 
ber have already declared that their 
eyes have been opened and that they are 
done with Romanism. [Applause.] 

How to induce the ministry to sail 
into Romanism is the question. But 
where there's a will there's always a 
way. And I think I can prescribe a 
remedy for that little malady also. [Ap- 
plause.] 

If I were a lay member of the church, 
I'd bet you a penny against a doughnut 
that my preacher would get on the job. 
[Applause.] I would personally request 
him to do it. And if my personal request 
availed nothing, I would create a senti- 
ment among a few strong, well-balanced 
members which would open his mouth 
and start it going with such terrific speed 
that it would beat the limited express to 
Chicago. [ Laughter. ] 

Every preacher knows Roman Cathol- 
icism is a menace to religion, society and 
the state; they are all informed upon the 



THE REMEDY 207 

subject. Fm confident that ninety-nine 
out of a hundred feel a personal respon- 
sibility in the matter. And I believe the 
laymen in Columbus, who are now red 
hot upon the subject, could start a 
propaganda that would spread over Ohio 
and sweep the nation. [Applause.] 

And it will be done. If the move- 
ment does not start from Columbus, it 
will start from some other center. The 
agitation is on, and the pulpit will swing 
into active line in the very near future. 

In the meantime, it is the duty of 
every loyal American, whose eyes are 
open, to be intensely active in the dis- 
tribution of antipapal literature, and in 
every other possible way to spread the 
light and dispel the darkness. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Also, while waiting for the greater 
opportunities the day of widespread pub- 
licity will usher in, it is not only the 
privilege, but the duty, of enlightened 
men in every city and town to create and 
maintain organizations for the dissemina- 
tion of light and the protection of their 
business interests. [Applause.] 



208 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

Wherever a good, strong, unyielding 
court of the Guardians of Liberty be- 
comes a community factor, it is a sharp 
knife which not only lances the carbuncle, 
but rips out the big boycott germ — now 
grown into a boa-constrictor — and affords 
quick relief. [Applause.] 

It has been said that people who 
stand on high ground must, sometimes, 
fling low. In these speeches I've re- 
peatedly flung low. But there was no 
other way. It's a low thing I've been 
flinging at, and I've had to fling low to 
hit it. [Applause.] 

I try to live in the Alpine heights, 
and nothing would have afforded me 
more pleasure than to have stood on the 
most stately peak and talked to you about 
angels. I've talked about angels, but 
they are the kind that inhabit the low- 
lands. [ Laughter. ] 

The ideal day has not yet arrived, 
and we are therefore compelled to em- 
ploy the resources at hand. And when 
necessity demands it, I'm in favor of 
treating poison with poison and fighting 
fire with fire. [Applause.] There came 



THE REMEDY 209 

a time in the ministry of our Master 
when a sermon would have availed noth- 
ing, and he resorted to whip-cords. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Catholics are no more anxious to lose 
money in business than are Protestants. 
And, inside of a month, the Protestants 
of Columbus could establish a situation 
that would cause Romanism to tie a dead 
cat to its boycott stick and toss it into 
the Scioto River. [Applause.] 

The effrontery of the brazen demand 
— accompanied by a boycott threat — that 
this series of lectures should be discon- 
tinned, is a challenge to the Protestant 
manhood of Columbus. [x\pplause.] 

Had we retired before this threat, 
Romanism would have become so bold 
that public speech would have been put 
under whip and lash for ten years. [Ap- 
plause.] But together we have played 
the band for seven weeks. [Applause.] 
IVe blown the mouth-harp and you have 
pounded the drum. [Laughter.] All 
predictions have failed. Meetings have 
been mobbed out of business in other 
localities. But, because we have stood 

14 



210 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

together, our program has remained 
before the footHghts. [Applause.] We 
are still all here, and, so far, no one has 
lost any teeth. [Laughter.] The boy- 
cott cat continues to watch the mouse- 
hole, but it hasn't yet jumped. [Laugh- 
ter.] And one series of lectures against 
Romanism is about to close with its hat 
on straight. [Applause.] 

If the Protestantism of Columbus is 
ever to have an auspicious moment in 
which to say to Romanism, ''Get in the 
ring, if you want to play the game of 
boycott,'' and to untie the hands of our 
newspapers, it's now. [Applause.] 

If the hundreds of Protestant men 
who have attended these meetings, and 
applauded this expose of Romanism, do 
not pick up the glove thrown down by the 
Knights of Columbus, I'll be ashamed 
to acknowledge that I wear trousers. 
[Tremendous applause.] 

And if any of you know of a man 
who is too cowardly to join in such a 
movement, I wish you would bring him 
to me ; I would like to say "Boo !" at him 
and scare him to death. [Laughter.] 



THE REMEDY 211 

But Fm not yet through with the 
symptomatic treatment. A powerful dis- 
infectant should be poured down into 
the recesses of Uncle Sam's carbuncle. 
[Laughter.] This heroic treatment 
would cause him to grind his teeth for a 
bit, but it would soon enable him to turn 
over and get a little needed rest. 
[Laughter.] And if you will follow me 
closely for about ten minutes, I think 
you will find no difficulty in discovering 
the nature of the remedy. 

But before giving you the prescrip- 
tion, I wish to make an explanation. It 
is reported all over the city that I'm a 
Socialist and the Broad Street Church 
of Christ is a hotbed of Socialism. 
[Laughter.] It sounds like a Roman 
report. [Laughter.] If the Democratic 
party doesn't cut loose from Rome, Til 
leave it. [Applause.] And if I do, it 
will mean the end of the Democratic 
party. [Laughter.] But I'm still a 
Democrat in good standing, and am 
praying and hoping that my party will 
yet give Rome a ''black eye" and redeem 
its reputation. [Applause.] There are 



212 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

also two or three other Democrats in the 
church. [Laughter.] Every now and 
then I see a man in an obscure corner, 
his hair standing on end, and looking 
scared. [Laughter.] And I always 
know he's a Democrat. [Laughter.] 
But, in this congregation, we Democrats 
are about as scarce as hen's teeth. 
[Laughter.] I know of at least one 
party Prohibitionist in the church, and 
he's a fine man. [Applause.] So far as 
I've been able to learn, the majority of 
the men in this church are straight-laced, 
double-decked, dyed-in-the-wool Repub- 
licans. [Applause.] If there's a Social- 
ist in the church, I've never met him. 

But the doors of this church are 
wide open to all. [Applause.] Dem- 
ocrats, Republicans, Prohibitionists, So- 
cialists, Mugwumps, Know Nothings and 
Sufifragettes — all may come in. [Ap- 
plause.] And even Catholics may for- 
sake the Roman party and find a wel- 
come here. [Laughter.] Now, I think 
that report is corrected. [Applause.] 

As I study the political situation, I 
see the Socialist, Labor, and all kindred 



THE REMEDY 213 

parties, the Prohibition party and the 
Anti-Saloon League, and the progressive 
elements in both the Democratic and 
Republican parties — all agitating reform. 
[Applause.] There is a universal rest- 
lessness; people everywhere and of all 
political creeds are saying, "'Conditions 
are wrong, and the situation must be 
remedied.'' [Applause.] 

Political reform is everywhere in our 
land, but it is yet in a chaotic state. The 
clear political platform has not yet been 
written. But the principles of freedom 
from every abuse are beginning to 
twinkle through the murky atmosphere; 
the evolution continues; the old is reced- 
ing, and the new is annually coming into 
closer view, and the day of justice 
approaches! [Applause.] Whether it 
will be ushered in by one of the present 
parties made over, or by a new party 
which is coming through the future to 
meet the situation — a party that may take 
only the good in all the parties and consti- 
tute it the foundation of the temple in 
which America shall be free, prosperous, 
and happy — I do not know. [Applause.] 



214 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

But Fm positive that the law which 
says, ''Only the fittest shall survive/' has 
American politics in its grasp. And, 
taking that law by the hand, I say to 
it, 'I'm willing to trust you/' [Ap- 
plause. ] 

And I'm also confident that, in the 
final analysis of its program, this law 
will discover that Rome has her arms 
around corrupt business, crooked politics, 
the liquor traffic, and the social evil; and 
that it will say to her, "Your hands pol- 
lute life and blast bodies with rum; your 
hands take bread from the hungry; your 
hands protect and cherish red-light dis- 
tricts — your hands are treacherous and 
dirty, and I must remove them from the 
politics of the United States." [Ap- 
plause. ] 

But America's Golden Age is not yet 
here. And while the political pot boils, 
and the agitation, which is but another 
name for education, goes on, patriotic 
Protestantism should keep the vial of 
common sense tilted over Uncle Sam's 
carbuncle. [Applause. ] 

If my own religious communion 



THE REMEDY 215 

taught doctrines and made laws that con- 
flicted with the genius and Government 
of the United States, I would say, un- 
hesitatingly, that none of its members 
should be considered eligible to any 
office in the land. [Applause.] I'm 
proud of Garfield, but I would say he 
should never have been President. [Ap- 
plause.] And Tm proud of Champ 
Clark, but I would say he should not 
now be in Congress. [Applause.] 

The Roman Church does not recog- 
nize the President as the chief magistrate 
of our country ; in her seminaries and 
from her pulpits she teaches, emphatical- 
ly, that the Pope is the sovereign of all 
nations. Suppose the Presbyterians 
should have proclaimed that the Presi- 
dent of our nation is no more than an 
*^altar boy," and that one of its chief 
presbyters is above all earthly rulers, 
would Wilson — an elder in that church 
and a subscriber to all its doctrines — 
have been elected without a country-wide 
protest ? Had the Methodist Church pro- 
claimed a bishop universal ruler, would 
McKinley, who indorsed the doctrines of 



216 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

that church, have received a landsHde 
vote? [Applause.] 

Again, Germany has forced the Cath- 
oHc Church, within her borders, to recog- 
nize the validity of her marriage laws. 
But the Catholic Church in America does 
not recognize our marriage laws. How 
long will Protestant America let Rome 
have the use of untaxed property — worth 
an amount of money that staggers the 
mind — in which to teach that every 
couple married by magistrate or Protest- 
ant minister is living in adultery, and 
that the children of Protestants, from the 
President down, are illegal and name- 
less! [Applause.] And when will Prot- 
estant America awake to the fact that 
every loyal Catholic is a part of the sys- 
tem which rebukes her laws and illegit- 
imatizes her children, and that, therefore, 
no Catholic should be considered a loyal 
American and eligible to office? [Ap- 
plause.] 

But this isn't all. The Motu Proprio 
decree of Pius X. is in direct conflict 
with the American system of government. 
That decree exempts the entire Cath- 



THE REMEDY 217 

olic priesthood from prosecution, if the 
offense of the priest be committed within 
the jurisdiction of a Catholic magistrate. 
It threatens with excommunication any 
Catholic who brings, without the consent 
of the higher ecclesiastical authorities, 
any ecclesiastic before a civil tribunal. 
That may look innocent to a blind man. 
[Applause.] But Tm not blind, and I 
see horns on it. [Laughter.] 

Let's interpret it a little. If a Cath- 
olic priest assaults you, or commits any 
other depredation which gives you just 
cause to proceed legally against him, and 
you apply to a Catholic magistrate for a 
warrant with which to apprehend him, 
that magistrate will be compelled to vio- 
late either his obligation to the state or 
his obligation to his church. 

This situation ties one of our most 
cherished principles to the stake, and 
jeopardizes the most valuable institution 
we have. [Applause.] 

The most upright and best qualified 
man for office in Columbus, or any other 
place, may be a Catholic, and as an officer 
he might administer the laws righteously 

15 



218 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

in every detail, exercising neither fear of 
nor favor for any. Nevertheless, bound 
as he is religiously, I insist that he is not 
eligible to any judicial or legislative office 
in the American system. [Applause.] 

Furthermore, unless the New York 
World, two or three years ago, presented 
its readers with a false statement of 
police-court news, I can come within a 
gnat's toe-nail [laughter] of referring 
you to a concrete example of the disas- 
trous results that are possible when a 
Catholic occupies a judicial chair. Ac- 
cording to that news item — and it is not 
probable that the World would have 
either intentionally or accidentally slap- 
ped Rome in the face with false news — 
Magistrate John C. Maguire, of the 
Gates Avenue Police Court, Brooklyn, 
declined to issue a warrant for the arrest 
of Father Belford on a charge of incite- 
ment to murder, preferred by F. C. I.in- 
gren. I know nothing about the merits 
of the case. But I do know that if Mag- 
istrate Maguire were a Catholic and had 
issued that warrant, he would have vio- 
lated a decree of his church and exposed 



THE REMEDY 219 

himself to excommunication. [Applause.] 

After Taff s first nomination, mem- 
bers of the opposition party preferred the 
charge that he was a Unitarian. Mr, 
Roosevelt defended his candidate by say- 
ing religion did not enter into the situa- 
tion, and that there was no reason why 
even a Catholic or a Jew should not be 
President. 

It's a little dangerous to take issue 
with Teddy. [Laughter.] But I under- 
stand he's now in South America, and 
perhaps I'll not get scalped if I seize the 
opportunity of his absence to register a 
personal opinion. [Laughter.] 

Jews are not bound by tenets or 
decrees that conflict with the laws of our 
land. Therefore, I agree with the ex- 
President that there is no legal reason 
why a Jew should not be President. 

But Roman Catholics are bound by 
tenets which not only conflict with, but 
defy, our entire system of government. 
Therefore, a Roman Catholic is an un- 
lawful occupant of any magisterial chair 
he may occupy, be it that of the Presi- 
dent or a police justice. [Applause.] 



220 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

And I, for one, will scratch any and 
every ticket I may be voting on which 
the name of a Catholic appears. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

Uncle Sam is suffering so terribly 
with his carbuncle that IVe had to spend 
considerable time on these temporary pre- 
scriptions. I have marveled at your 
patience. The fact that for seven weeks 
you have wended your way hither, 
through all kinds of weather, and sat 
and stood in uncomfortable positions 
and listened to each of my long-winded 
speeches to the end, inclines me to be 
lenient toward you to-night. I shall, 
therefore, let you off at the end of a short 
run. [Laughter.] And, for your en- 
couragement, I will say that it will re- 
quire only a few more hours to prescribe 
the constitutional treatment. [Laugh- 
ter.] I feel that the remedy I shall now 
suggest is the only specific one, w^hich 
will eventually work the disease out of 
the old gentleman's entire system and 
renew his youth like the eagle's. [Ap- 
plause.] 

IVe read Paine and V^oltaire and 



THE REMEDY 221 

Huxley and IngersoU and Spencer, and 
numerous other authors — all along the 
line from avowed atheists to skeptical 
scientists and sciolists and notoriety-seek- 
ing surfaceites, such as the ''sage'' of 
East Aurora, N. Y. I am by no means 
a sentimentalist. If a question can be 
answered, I must have the answer before 
I can tie up with the proposition it intro- 
duces. I, therefore, weigh everything — 
including religion — in terms of cold logic. 
And when I say I'm convinced that the 
Christian religion — not as it is now bound 
with humanisms, but in the original free- 
dom Christ gave it when he called it into 
being — must guide the destinies of the 
world, I do not come to you with a vision, 
or a dream, or an impression, but with a 
conclusion born of cold-blooded thinking. 
[Applause.] 

The Christian religion of the New 
Testament is, therefore, the big dose I 
prescribe for Uncle Sam. [Applause.] 

I say the ''Christian religion of the 
New Testament," because Protestantism 
has shoveled modified Roman Catholicism 
down his throat until, religiously, his 



222 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

pulse is weak, his feet are cold, and he's 
pushing the churches away, and saying: 
'If you doctors keep on, you will not only 
fail to cure me, but you will cause me to 
break out with a clear case of infidelity; 
then ril be done for/' [Applause.] 

And why the accusation that the 
churches are administering doses of mod- 
ified Roman Catholicism? Here's the 
answer. 

There never was a creed or discipline 
or decree issued by church officials until 
the apostasy, which was the beginning of 
Roman Catholicism. Prior to the apos- 
tasy, the church recognized only the plain 
teachings of the New Testament. [Ap- 
plause.] 

The apostate church began the manu- 
facture of additional doctrines, and she is 
still the controlling firm in the business. 

The time came when such men as 
Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and Luther 
rebelled against the false teaching of the 
church, and the Reformation was begun. 
The term "begun" is more expressive 
than any other, because, as every thinker 
must admit, the Reformation is not yet 



THE REMEDY 223 

complete. Instead of swinging entirely 
away from Romanism, Protestantism re- 
tained the Roman notion of human 
creeds; hence the nearly two hundred 
Protestant denominations, the majority 
of which still cling to the old Roman idea 
of permitting ecclesiastics to dictate the 
doctrines proclaimed and the forms of 
worship practiced. The Apostles' and 
Nicene Creeds are examples of the errors 
with which the Protestant church is still 
cursed. 

The divisions of the Protestant church 
have occurred as a consequence of 
humanisms, which originated in the apos- 
tate church. 

Looking down through the centuries 
and seeing the deplorable divisions of his 
church, Jesus prayed that these dissen- 
sions might disappear. No living man 
can reconcile the present-day Protestant 
situation with John 17:21: "That they 
all may be one; as thou. Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they also may be 
one in us: that the world may believe 
that thou hast sent me.'' [Applause.] 

The world will not listen with any 



224 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

degree of admiration to the message of a 
divided church, because such a message 
is necessarily self -contradictory. The 
Protestant creeds are as diametrical as 
the poles. [Applause.] 

"Like wandering sheep o'er mountains cold, 
Since all have gone astray, 
To life and peace within the fold 
How may I know the way? 

"Bewildered oft with doubt and care, 
To God I feign would go; 
While many say, 'Lo, here!' 'Lo, there!* 
The truth how may I know?" 

[Applause.] 

Dozens of people — some of them here 
in Columbus — have told me they felt 
no interest in the church because of 
her divisions and clashing creeds. And 
should I call on all in this vast audience, 
who are in the same position, to stand up 
and register their protest against our 
divided Protestantism, and all such should 
comply with the request, Fm confident the 
number would be surprising. 

Our divisions are not only keeping 
multitudes out of and away from the 
churches, but they constitute a millstone 



THE REMEDY 225 

tied to the neck of the Protestant church 
in her conflict with Romanism. [Ap- 
plause.] 

While the Protestant churches are 
chasing one another around the barn — 
each trying to convince the others its 
little Romanized creed has been ordained 
of God — Romanism is stealing the horse. 
[Laughter.] 

One of the most encouraging signs of 
the times is the fact that the world is 
emphasizing its protest against this folly 
of the churches by letting the preachers 
deliver their creed-bound sermons to 
empty pews. [Applause.] 

This, I'm thoroughly convinced, is the 
only method that will jolt the church into 
her senses. [Applause.] 

I challenge the Protestant ministry to 
successfully controvert the charge. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

When the church throws away her 
human creeds, abolishes her silly denomi- 
nationalism, takes her stand squarely 
upon the only apostles' creed — ''J^^us, the 
Christ, the Son of the living God" — 
authorized by Matt. 16: 16, and begins 



226 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

proclaiming the plain gospel — plus noth- 
ing, minus nothing — in its relation to the 
redemption of the world, the great revival 
will begin. [Applause.] Then the people 
will flock, and the temples of worship 
will have to be enlarged. [Applause.] 
Rome will think she's the lamb and 
imagine that she's being pursued by a 
billion lions. [Applause.] And when 
Rome's dominion is wrecked. King Alco- 
hol will be dethroned; the red light will 
go out [applause] ; the political sky will 
be burnished [applause] ; the Golden Rule 
will obtain in the industrial world, making 
the bloated money king an impossibility, 
and lifting the laboring classes into a 
realm of prosperity [applause] ; the Christ 
will come into his own [applause] ; heaven 
will be on earth [applause], and the devil 
will lose his job. [Applause.] 

Rome proudly boasts, from her pulpits 
and in her press, that she fears nothing 
at the hands of a divided Protestantism. 
And this, alone, should cause every Prot- 
estant to hang his head in shame. [Ap- 
plause. ] 

But Rome is too blind to see that the 



THE REMEDY 227 

Protestant church is revising her creeds, 
and that when she gets through revising 
them there will be nothing left to revise. 
[Applause.] She doesn't see that, while 
little two-by-four men advocate a con- 
tinued denominationalism, the men of 
large vision in every communion are 
pushing forward the spirit of Christian 
union. [Applause.] She doesn't see that 
the New Testament she publicly burned 
in Champlain, N. Y., as late as 1842 — 
the book she hates in the hands of the 
common people because its entrance giv- 
eth light — is rapidly coming to the front 
and will ultimately be the only Protestant 
rule of faith and practice. [Applause.] 
She doesn't see the cloud Lincoln saw, 
torn and demolished by a mighty united 
Protestantism. [Applause.] Rome is 
dwelling in a fool's paradise! [Ap- 
plause.] 

Uncle Sam's carbuncle will disappear, 
and not leave a scar on his neck. [Laugh- 
ter.] Every germ will be driven from 
his system, and every pimple will slip 
from his skin. [Laughter.] He will 
eventually be as hale and ruddy as a lad 



228 CENTER-SHOTS AT ROME 

of twelve; his muscles will be full and 
as hard as iron; his face will be as the 
shining sun ; his voice will be as the music 
of a trumpet, and he will shout the gospel 
of full-orbed freedom to the nations of 
the world. [Applause.] 

Romanism, driven from Italy, shut 
out of England and Germany, ridiculed 
in Ireland, kicked by the smaller nations 
she now rules, and spurned by the en- 
lightened peoples that are now pagan, 
will tremble at the sound of his voice, run 
from his world-wide shadow, and finally 
jump from the toe of his boot into the 
clime where they don't shovel snow. 
[Laughter and prolonged applause.] 

Romanism, as I suggested in the first 
sentence of the series, is the world's 
mightiest political system — the most pow- 
erful foe of the human race. Romanism 
is the Babylon, out of which all God's 
people will come — the city whose streets 
are painted with blood, whose temples are 
resonant with blasphemy, and whose sins 
will sink her into perdition. [Applause.] 
Babylon will fall, never to rise again. 
[Applause.] 



THE REMEDY 229 

And when this wicked system disap- 
pears and the gospel is supreme, 

"Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run; 
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
Till moons shall wax and wane no more/' 

[Applause.] 



THE END. 



ROMANISM 

A Menace to the Nation 

By JEREMIAH J. CROWLEY 

The author was, for twenty-one years, a priest of 
the Roman Catholic Church — and still unexcommuni- 
cated — a lecturer, writer, scholar of rich and varied 
attainments, a brilliant and fearless leader, who, like 
Martin Luther, left the Roman Catholic Church only 
after he saw that all efforts to reform the priesthood 
were absolutely futile. 

Besides having information of the most damaging 
kind, that can be procured nowhere else, "Father'* 
Crowley proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that the 
Roman Church is built upon superstition and ignorance, 
and that its motive powers are lust and graft. He 
offers page after page of startling and uncontrovertible 
facts to prove that men whom the hierarchy know to 
be immoral are the ones who are appointed to the high 
places. Like all true reformers, he discusses principles. 
For the Catholic people he has a profound love, and he 
speaks of them in terms of highest praise and affection. 
But he is a tireless and inveterate foe of the hierarchy 
and their plans, and is the strongest enemy that system 
has. The only answer Rome has ever attempted to 
make to his $10,000 challenge was the one to take his 
life while he was delivering a patriotic address on the 
public schools. Lovers of liberty and truth, and defend- 
ers of our national institutions, secure this book. It is 
the best that has ever been published. Our public 
institutions have had no more fearless and intelligent 
champion than the author of this book. It is an arsenal 
of facts that can blast away that stumbling-block (the 
Roman Catholic Church) in the path of progress. 

Cloth, 8vo, 701 pp., 77 photographs 
Price, postpaid, $1.50 

The Standard Publishing Company 

CINCINNATI, O. 



The Old Cevenol 

By RABAUT SAINT-ETIENNE 

And translated from the French by A. £. Seddon 

A Stirring Tale of Protestant Suffering Incident 
to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 

'T'HE plot of this absorbing story is laid in the times 
of Louis XIV., when the extravagance and splendor 
of the French Court were astonishing all Europe. The 
author, Rabaut Saint-Etienne, was a famous and eloquent 
Protestant preacher, and his rehearsal of the trials and 
persecutions of Ambrose Borely, of Cevennes, and other 
Protestants of those perilous times, is true to the hor- 
rihle facts of history. 

This tale, which presents a notable chapter in the 
history of French Protestantism, needs only a perusal 
of its opening pages to insure that the reader will fol- 
low it to the end of the story. 

A comparison of the book with contemporary history 
shows that even the most tragic portions of the book 
have not been overdrawn. The tale is simply told, yet 
the impression it leaves is most vivid. It is a book 
that will interest readers, young and old, who like to 
spend an hour with the real people that are sometimes 
found in the world of books. The chaste and artistic 
cover attracts one at the outset. Its appropriateness 
becomes increasingly evident as one follows the story 
to its conclusion. The fact that the scenes presented 
are in a period far remote from our own in no way 
alters the value of the book. — Mattie M. Boteler. 

A. E. Seddon has done a great service in giving us 
a translation of "The Old Cevenol." Most people, 
including preachers, have little knowledge of what has 
been suffered by the many who have been brave enough 
to leave the Roman Catholic Church. Through all of 
these centuries its wicked hand has been raised against 
every man who is not for it, and especially against 
those who have left its ranks. "The Old Cevenol" tells 
a most fascinating and thrilling story of the terrible 
history following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
The cruelty, pathos, faithfulness and bravery all woven 
into the story will captivate any lover of good litera- 
ture. The first chapter was so strangely interesting 
that I could not leave the book until I had read every 
word. It is nicely bound, good, clear print, and would 
make at any time an appropriate gift for any religious 
friend. — E. E. Violett, Evangelist. 

Beautifully bound in decorated boards, 12mo. 
Price, postpaid, 75c. 

The Standard Publishing Company 

CINCINNATI, O. 



Ji Brilliant Refutation of the Sophistries 
Underlying Roman Catholic Theology 

How I Became a 

Non-Catholic 

By JOHN HUNKEY 

Though eminently just and conservative in its state- 
ments of the Roman Catholic view on many points 
where they are at variance with non-Catholics, the 
book is a complete expose of the pitiful ignorance and 
superstition of an enslaved people. Though the book 
touches now and then on subjects that go deep, the 
style is remarkably clear and simple and free from 
technicalities that oftentimes makes the reading of 
theological and metaphysical subjects extremely tedious, 
if not altogether impossible to the average reader. It 
ought to be in every home — especially in every non- 
Catholic home. 

The volume contains numerous quotations from 
Catholic teachings, from popes, priests and periodicals, 
and effectual refutations of them all. In addition, there 
is an exhaustive study of "The Real Presence of Christ 
in the Eucharist" and "The Invocation of the Blessed 
Virgin." 



"The record of this man's experience, in his eman- 
cipation from dogmas blindly and unquestioningly received 
in youth^ examined and questioned in maturity, and 
finally rejected as being absurd and unscriptural, is inter- 
esting as a romance, and true to the verities of life. It 
was a happy circumstance for him that in falling away 
from false doctrines he turned to the Scriptures. It 
saved him from the vortex of unbelief into which so 
many plunge at such a crisis." — B. J. Radford. 



Cloth, 12mo.; stamped in gold 
Price, postpaid, $1.00 

The Standard Publishing Company 

CINCINNATI, O. 



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